Many of the assumptions regarding Liverpool's place in the world football hierarchy have been shattered by the £75 million they have shelled out for Virgil Van Dijk. For Liverpool fans, it proves to them that Fenway Sports Group are willing to invest vast amounts in the squad, the incipient income from the sale of Phillippe Coutinho notwithstanding. (And given that a large chunk of the Van Dijk fee is paid up front, it is less relevant).
It also undermines somewhat Jurgen Klopp's notion that players picked the more difficult option in joining Liverpool, given their relatively poorer resources compared to their rivals in London and Manchester. Klopp's managerial success is based on squeezing the most out of his players through hard running and a detailed attacking strategy.
At his Liverpool unveiling, Klopp said that "you have no control over the other team. If they are really good you have to bring them to your level. On your level, you can kill any team". He has a fine track record of doing this: he established tiny Mainz in the Bundesliga, and overcame Bayern's resources with Dortmund until the Bavarians trained their chequebook on his brilliant young team.
Hence his persistence with the likes of Simon Mignolet, Alberto Moreno, and Dejan Lovren at Liverpool: rightly or wrongly, he believes he can coach them and improve them. Having flirted with a Billy Beane-quoting Transfer Committee under Brendan Rodgers, Liverpool decided the best way to bridge the financial gap between themselves and the top clubs was to invest in Klopp, who could coach a team to achieve more than the sum of its parts. Klopp has bought into this, and has been critical of rival clubs who have tossed money at their problems.
Consider these quotes about Paul Pogba's world record transfer to Manchester United in 2016, which look slightly awkward in light of the fee splurged on Van Dijk.
If you bring one player in for £100m and he gets injured, then it all goes through the chimney. The day that this is football, I’m not in a job anymore, because the game is about playing together.
That is how everybody in football understands it. You always want to have the best, but building the group is necessary to be successful.
Other clubs can go out and spend more money and collect top players. I want to do it differently. I would even do it differently if I could spend that money.
The fee for Van Dijk is an admission from Liverpool and Klopp that they need to spend vast sums of money to compete with their English rivals.
He should improve their defence - the individual errors that have plagued Dejan Lovren should be lessened if not eradicated by Van Dijk, while his ranging of passing from what will effectively be centre-midfield should help Liverpool quicken the tempo of the games against lesser sides in which they have most of the ball.
But whatever about Klopp's comments being publicly undermined, his entire system will be under more scrutiny now. Up to now, Liverpool's leaking of goals has been down to a mixture of poor players being exposed in an attacking system. Van Dijk should fix the personnel issue, so if Liverpool continue to concede goals in gluts of two, three, and four, it will force scrutiny on Klopp's methods.
Liverpool have upped their investment, and by doing so, upped the stakes for their manager.
