Twelve months ago, a walk to the away end of Manchester City's Etihad Stadium would prove to be the catalyst for Jurgen Klopp to sign a new contract at Liverpool.
Subsequent conversations in the kitchen of his Formby home with wife Ulla, who was in the Reds' end on April 10 last year, resulted in a Klopp family agreement about putting pen to paper for a further two years.
It was a decision that the boss has since indicated was fuelled by his desire to go again; to keep Liverpool exactly where they stood in world football at that time, as one of the very best on the continent.
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Flash forward a year and Klopp made that same trot across the pitch at full time having had the daunting task that now confronts him presented in unflattering HD.
The need for a major overhaul has never been more apparent. Having been swatted aside across two legs with Real Madrid, which finished 6-2 on aggregate, the Reds were again humbled by another Champions League hopeful of equal quality. Once more, Liverpool slumped to an embarrassing defeat.
There is usually little shame in losing here at the Etihad but the manner of the second-half collapse was abject; it only underscores just how far Klopp's men have fallen since those halcyon days of last year.
"You're getting sacked in the morning!" sneered a jubilant home support late on as Klopp stood, arms folded, with his team trailing 4-1. He then sent on James Milner...
After what had been an absorbing first-half contest, the Reds crumbled after the break as City ran riot before mercifully declaring in the closing stages.
Klopp had spoken frankly about the need for a massive summer of change on Friday, saying: "We will spend in the summer, that's what I can say definitely. The club will spend in the summer, definitely."
Whoever is in charge of keeping that promise later needs to make sure those words are not empty, hollow sound bites. Whether it's club owners Fenway Sports Group, the recruitment department and outgoing sporting director Julian Ward or the manager himself, that claim needs to be acted upon. Like never before.
For a football manager who so often bristles when the topic of transfers is broached, the idea of Klopp talking so openly about the need for money to be spent and for quality additions to arrive was jarring.
If this is a club who are serious about returning to the heights enjoyed between 2019-2022, then Klopp's words must prove prophetic. The alternative is seeing Liverpool slip back into the pack of also-rans for longer than just this aberration of a campaign.
And this is not a case of demanding money be spent and for players to be signed purely for the sake of it; the need for a significant restructure within the playing staff is stark and has been for quite some time.
Liverpool took the lead on 18 minutes when Diogo Jota laid the ball off to Mohamed Salah after he had escaped the offside trap from a wonderful Trent Alexander-Arnold pass. It was an emphatic finish from the Egyptian.
Klopp's team had a golden chance to double their advantage on the counter-attack but Salah's square ball to an unmarked Jota was cut out after important tracking from Jack Grealish. And the England winger's defensive work proved even more vital when Julian Alvarez tucked home before the half-hour mark to level things up.
Liverpool were incensed that Rodri was able to play on after he appeared to take down Cody Gakpo by the shoulders just seconds after being booked for a waistlock on the impressive Jota. A number of players quickly swarmed referee Simon Hooper who decided against sending off City's Spanish midfielder before the half-time whistle blew on a quality first 45 minutes.
City took the lead just moments after the restart when Kevin De Bruyne turned home Riyad Mahrez's cross. It was a move that came from very little as the Reds defence were caught too high up the pitch.
Guardiola's men were celebrating once more a few minutes later when Ilkay Gundogan dispatched past Alisson Becker after Liverpool had failed to clear the first shot from Alvarez. Having made it a real contest in the opening half, the Reds fell apart barely five minutes into the second, underlining the fragile confidence and soft underbelly that has been obvious all season.
Klopp opted for a quadruple sub as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Darwin Nunez, Roberto Firmino and Kostas Tsimikas all came on for Salah, Jota, Andy Robertson and Elliott but it did little to inspire a fightback.
Instead, Grealish made the most of a two-on-one with De Bruyne against a flagging Alexander-Arnold to tuck home and put the gloss on the result. That City were able to dismantle their visitors without the help of 28-goal Erling Haaland only added to the contrast between the two respective directions of these clubs right now.
Arsenal's title challenge has proven that an astute summer spent working to acquire the right transfer targets can catapult a team back to the upper echelons in the top flight and Liverpool, having led the way on recruitment for the best part of five years under the watch of Klopp and former sporting director Michael Edwards, must now look to steal a page from the Londoners' playbook.
A week many coined "season-defining" started in the worst possible way and the Promised Land of the Champions League is threatening to drift entirely out of sight for Klopp and his staff ahead of games at Chelsea and at home to Arsenal next.
But if there is to be a year spent outside of Europe's most lucrative competition, it cannot act as the excuse for those who matter to shirk the task of a rebuild that is, as evidenced by events here in Manchester, so painfully needed.
To rub salt into the open, gaping Liverpool wounds, one former Manchester City manager left a handful of staff in exaggerated hysterics as he walked towards the exit declaring: "We got lucky there in the second half, didn't we?" Cue the laughter. It was that sort of day for a disheveled Liverpool.
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