Straight after Arne Slot’s first season at Feyenoord, 16 players left the club.
Some for pastures which they viewed as greener grass, some because the club knew their place in the food chain and needed to sell their best assets, some turfed out by Slot simply because they were not good enough.
By the same token, 15 new players joined. It was a summer of upheaval to say the least and, that pre-season, Feyenoord did not keep a single clean sheet, losing four of their six friendlies.
What happened next? The Rotterdam club stormed the league to win just their second Dutch Eredivisie title of this century, breaking the Ajax-PSV Eindhoven duopoly in style.
Suddenly, Slot was an adopted son and icon of this beautiful port city.
Similar in Liverpool — at least, the red half. He is already an icon and a new banner on the Kop on Friday will prove that, his face alongside Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Kenny Dalglish, Rafael Benitez and Jurgen Klopp, all winners of the Premier League, European Cup or both.
Arne Slot will know the pressure is on as Liverpool look to defend their Premier League title
Florian Wirtz (right), signed for £116m, is among the arrivals in a summer of upheaval at Anfield
And so his achievements in 12 months in the job, plus his history at Feyenoord, should ensure he gets the benefit of the doubt when people say Liverpool have made too much change this summer. But one thing that cannot be denied is this — the pressure is now well and truly on.
The champions have signed seven players at the time of writing — and we have to say that, because they have been so busy the number is constantly changing, with more moves on the horizon — and sold seven.
That is £295million laid down and £190m recouped, a net spend of £105m.
Rival fans, though, do not take ‘net spend’ into account and will just see the big number, £295m.
That will be taken to £321m when the signing of 18-year-old Italian defender Giovanni Leoni goes through, and who knows how high if and when they sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle and Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi.
Because of that number and the fact they are champions, Liverpool go into this season with the weight of expectation on their shoulders. Last year they were a group in transition, a hard team to predict. Now more people than not will predict them to be top dogs again.
Slot says he does not feel that pressure and has made that a theme of his summer team talks. Last season is done. Now, he told them, we start from zero again. Captain Virgil van Dijk has told his team-mates similar — we have enjoyed the celebrations, now it is time for hard work again.
Liverpool are the favourites to run away with the Premier League title again. But there are some nagging questions that have been filtering through the fanbase, especially the doom-and-gloom merchants online, this week.
Hugo Ekitike has made a promising start to life at Liverpool but the club are short of options up front
There are also question marks over some of Liverpool’s stars, including Virgil Van Dijk, who turned 34 in July
What if they do not have the luck (and, for the record, Liverpool’s fitness gurus would be irked at it being called ‘luck’) with injuries this year? What if new boys Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike take a while to get going? What if Mohamed Salah, 33, and Van Dijk, 34, start to show their age?
The Dutchman spent five days in bed last week with a virus, hardly ideal pre-season preparation, while key midfielder Ryan Gravenberch will not be in the squad against Bournemouth. Slot is also worried about the lack of a back-up No 9 to new boy Ekitike. Given the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold was anticipated for months and the vice-captain joined Real Madrid what feels like a lifetime ago, some have maybe underestimated just how much the Englishman’s creativity will be missed.
All of these points, though, are for the pessimists. It is worth recalling the amount of questions that stalked Slot’s first season — what if this is just a honeymoon period and they cannot keep up their fine form? The Dutch manager swatted away many ‘what ifs’ in his debut year.
‘The standard here is 10 out of 10,’ he said yesterday. ‘Doing things well is not good enough. We have to go one step up in certain aspects. There is fine tuning we still need to find defensively.
‘But in pre-season it’s normal that there is some room for improvement. It’s normal there’s a little bit of adaptation. We are definitely ready for the league to start.’
While the squad is maybe a couple of players light in terms of depth — Leoni and perhaps Guehi, too, will solve one issue and they are in pursuit of a new attacker — there is no doubt that the overall quality of the squad has improved.
Darwin Nunez, for all of his dramatic last-minute winners, never lived up to his £85m price-tag and the multi-talented, deft Ekitike has replaced him.
The Frenchman scored a fine goal in the Community Shield and, more satisfying for Slot, put in an all-round creative No9 performance.
Liverpool have freshened up their full backs in the transfer window, signing Milos Kerkez (pictured) and Jeremie Frimpong
The full backs have been freshened up, with Milos Kerkez coming in and set to make his league debut against former employers Bournemouth.
On the other side Jeremie Frimpong, described to Daily Mail Sport by former boss Neil Lennon as ‘a wee assassin’, is an effervescent menace.
But the main addition is Wirtz, all £116m of him. The German superstar has everything — he can be the creative hub, he can score goals, he is a keen runner and, above all, he has the attitude to thrive and get better.
Slot said on Thursday: ‘His mentality is maybe his biggest strength. You might think, ‘Hmm, are you serious, have you seen how creative he is?’. He does not get distracted at all by the transfer fee. Good players always find a way to play well.
‘Everything we expect is very positive, but expecting and realising something are different things. Why are Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mo Salah so highly regarded? Because they are always fit.
‘Every single game they are fit and that is something Florian first has to show in a league like ours. If he is able to stay to fit then our fans will see great moments. He is a different profile to what we have.’
Wirtz has been linking up nicely with Salah pre-season and the German will ease the load on Liverpool’s talisman, who scored 29 and assisted 18 in the league last season but did tail off, with just two goals in his last nine games.
So while there are some teething problems in Slot’s Liverpool 2.0, the reasons to be cheerful far outweigh the reasons to be fearful. As the champions kick off their title defence at Anfield tonight, it is clear that they, again, are the team to beat.
