Yan Diomande completed a £120m move to Real Madrid after snubbing Liverpool earlier in the transfer window, a decision that underscores a warning Jurgen Klopp issued during his early years at Anfield.
Diomande's Decision and Liverpool's Transition
Liverpool had seemingly led the chase for the Ivorian earlier this summer and were willing to pay £86m to land his signature. Such a fee ultimately fell short of RB Leipzig's demands. But before Liverpool could return with an improved offer, it emerged that Diomande had decided he favoured a move to Paris Saint-Germain over Anfield.
The Athletic reported that he came to such a decision because it was felt that the Reds would be in transition over the coming season, and he instead wanted to help PSG try and win a third straight Champions League title and even challenge for the Ballon d'Or.
PSG ultimately withdrew from the race to sign Diomande at the end of July following Real Madrid's own emergence, having been reluctant to meet the forward's salary demands and RB Leipzig's asking price. By then, Liverpool were long out of the conversation and switched their attention elsewhere as the Reds instead stepped up their interest in Bradley Barcola.
Klopp's Philosophy on Commitment
It is perhaps at this point worth reminding ourselves of one of Klopp's most memorable quotes from his early time in charge of Liverpool as the Reds faced up to the likely possibility of missing out on Champions League football.
"If I would speak to a player now and he would tell me: 'if you were playing in the Champions League next year I would be really interested', I would put the phone down from my side," he said in April 2016. "I am not interested.
"I always tell players if when you are 35 or 36 and look back on your career and you think about the one year when you didn't play Champions League then you are really a poor boy.
"There are so many things you can do and reach if you go together with the team. You can qualify for the Champions League, play Champions League, maybe win it or whatever.
"It is a much more satisfying thing than all the rest. That is what I would say. It is pushing the train, not jumping on the running train. That is what we need here.
"If somebody says: 'no, you don't play Champions League next year' then goodbye and thank you, have fun next year wherever you will be.
"We will find players or we have players already that will go our way. That is not my way, that is the normal way for a club not playing in the Champions League."
Pushing the train rather than jumping on the running train was a belief he would repeat more than once in the forthcoming years as Klopp's Liverpool side went on to win every major honour.
"This is a very, very special club," Klopp said ahead of his departure in the summer of 2024. "I didn't make them believe. I reminded them that it helps when you believe. That's what I think. Everybody was ready to push the train and that's what we did for eight-and-a-half years."
Liverpool's Current Situation
That attitude is something the Reds now need to rediscover. They are not starting from as far back as when the German first took over, but it is hard to decipher where exactly they fall in the Premier League pecking order as things stand.
Defending champions Arsenal are rightful title favourites, but there has been so much change around the majority of the English top-flight, with fellow 'Big Six' clubs Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur all boasting new permanent head coaches.
Predictions for the campaign ahead are starting to come in, with the Reds not even being tipped for a top four finish in some quarters. Iraola will be keen to prove such doubters wrong.
Diomande snubbed Liverpool, opting to forgo a potentially transitional campaign in order to jump aboard a running train elsewhere. But while missing out on the Ivorian was a blow, perhaps he was not quite right for the Reds after all. Hopefully, Barcola will be.
