One of the most quoted post-retirement musings of Alex Feguson has been his belief that a great team has a cycle of just four years.
It was back in September 2013, just months after he stepped down after 27 years as Manchester United manager, when Ferguson was asked to hand over some of his tricks of the trade to the Harvard Business School.
"I believe that the cycle of a successful team lasts maybe four years and then some change is needed," he explained at the time. "So we tried to visualise the team three or four years ahead and make decisions accordingly. Because I was at United for such a long time, I could afford to plan ahead. I was very fortunate in that respect. The hardest thing is to let go of a player who has been a great guy – but all the evidence is on the field."
If Ferguson's general rule of thumb is an accurate one, it's fair to suggest Jurgen Klopp is now more than a significant way through the rebuilding of what is hoped to be his second great Liverpool team.
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Between the years of 2018 and 2022, the Reds won every top-level trophy available and they recorded Premier League points tallies of 97, 99 and 92 in three out of four seasons. Add in the UEFA Super Cup and a Community Shield during that time and that four-year cycle was a glittering one for all concerned.
The arrival of Luis Diaz, in January of last year, was perhaps the first significant block towards the rebuilding process that is now firmly underway at Anfield. It could also be argued that the 2021 addition of Ibrahima Konate was the real starting point but wherever you stand, the high-profile transfers have been significant since the turn of last year.
After Diaz joined six months ahead of schedule, which owed to Tottenham Hotspur's sudden interest in the then Porto winger in late January of last year, Liverpool have since added Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Sozoboszlai to their ranks as senior first-team members.
All four arrivals have helped lower the average age of the squad that began last season as the joint oldest in the division, alongside Chelsea, at 28.7 years. The 2-2 draw with Fulham on August 6 saw Klopp name as many as six players in their 30s.
Joel Matip, Virgil van Dijk, Jordan Henderson, Thiago Alcantara, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino all combined to make it the oldest Liverpool team that had started a Premier League fixture since 1994. The team that kicked off the Community Shield a week earlier was the oldest since 1953 at 30 years and 39 days, according to scouting tool Fbref.
The arrivals of two midfielders in Mac Allister and Szoboszlai has given the engine room a vibrant new look to it ahead of the new season and, crucially, has lowered the average age of a squad that will be less reliant on players in the Autumn of their respective careers going forward.
Salah and Van Dijk - at 31 and 32, respectively - will be viewed as special cases given their enduring ability and what they are still able to contribute but with Firmino now having departed alongside 37-year-old vice captain James Milner, Thiago and Henderson set to face stronger competition for places than ever before, and Matip now behind Konate in the pecking order, Liverpool's overall mileage will be reduced considerably. Diogo Jota and Diaz, at 26, both have their best years ahead of them too, theoretically.
In Trent Alexander-Arnold, Gakpo, Nunez, Mac Allister and Konate, Liverpool have five players at the age of 24 who are generally entering their peak years as a footballer. Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones are both aged 22, while Harvey Elliott only turned 20 in April.
Add in the emergence of an 18-year-old Stefan Bajcetic and it's clear that Liverpool's is a squad now ready to grow, improve and reach its full potential as a collective for the coming years. Players like Kaide Gordon (signed at 16), Fabio Carvalho (19), Calvin Ramsay (18) and Ben Doak (16) only add further weight to that long-term strategy.
The only signing who has really be in contrast to that blueprint was the opportunistic addition of Thiago Alcantara in September of 2020 when it became clear the Reds could land one of the most decorated midfielders of the modern era for a cut-price fee of an initial £25m.
It's why transfer interest in the likes of Romeo Lavia and Levi Colwill makes sense, even if both players indicate a deviation from the general rule within the recruitment department at Anfield.
Liverpool prefer their big-money arrivals to have played somewhere between 150 and 200 senior games by the time they move to the club, which Szoboszlai and Mac Allister both fit into. Lavia and Colwill, however, are fledglings by comparison.
Colwill, 20, who was rock solid for England's Under-21s during their successful European Championship campaign, has played just 17 Premier League games to date while on loan at Brighton last season, while 19-year-old Lavia, who was one of the standout performers for Southampton, made 29 appearances in that same time.
"I’ll speak to my family, speak to everyone I need to and make a decision," Colwill is quoted as saying over his future as Liverpool watch on amid further interest from Brighton. "I’ve got to play at the end of the day to hopefully get there [England senior team] and go to the next camp.”
Liverpool have been admirers of Colwill for some time and tracked his progress closely during his stint on the south coast last season. With Brighton seeing a reported £30m bid rejected at the end of the season and Chelsea likely to be unwilling to hand over their young defender without a premium, there are several hoops to jump through if the Reds are to firm up their admiration.
While neither Lavia nor Colwill have the preferred number of miles on the dashboard for Liverpool in terms of the surety they prefer from big-money transfers, their lack of real experience is not necessarily a barrier to first-team football at Anfield, particularly under a manager like Klopp, whose trust in young talent has enabled plenty to flourish.
Joe Gomez, for example, was two years Colwill's junior when he became a first-team member of the Liverpool squad too back in 2015 and the then 18-year-old had yet to taste top-flight football, while in Lavia's position, Bajcetic has proven himself more than capable at the age of 18 last term.
Liverpool have performed the necessary due diligence on Lavia but are yet to approach Southampton with a formal proposal. With Chelsea also interested and Manchester City in possession of a £40m buyback clause that comes into effect next year, the Saints may be willing to bide their time over the future of the Belgium international.
For now, it is a watching brief on both for the Reds but interest is genuine. The ages and profiles of both suggest the long-term thinking is taking precedent as Klopp goes about creating his next great Liverpool team.
