Perhaps, at the last, there was a touch of vindication. In Richard Hughes’ final match as Liverpool’s sporting director, the game was decided after just nine minutes. A devastating burst of two goals in three minutes from Alexander Isak, was probably what Hughes had envisaged rather when he committed a British transfer record of £125m to the striker.
When Isak went off and Bradley Barcola came on at Portman Road, Liverpool became the first club to field three £100m signings in the same game, if not at the same time. Hughes’ reign can be framed in high numbers: more than £650m going on new signings in little over a year with Barcola, Isak and Florian Wirtz each accounting for at least £100m of it. It was initially a time of high achievement, too: Liverpool have only won two Premier League titles and the second came after Hughes headhunted Arne Slot from Feyenoord as Jurgen Klopp’s replacement. That, it seemed, was the Liverpool way: intelligent recruitment, sometimes eschewing the obvious candidates for the leftfield coups.
