It's fair to suggest there are contrasting views inside the Liverpool camp over the fact they will be playing host to Europa League football next season.
For Jurgen Klopp, whose glass is unquestionably half full, it is a chance to chase the one trophy that has eluded him during his decorated tenure at Anfield. It's an opportunity to show why his team should rightly be considered one of the big favourites and a chance to put right the 2016 final defeat to Sevilla.
"I am 100% sure people now may think: 'Ah, it's just the Europa League' but I am 100% sure that come the first whistle, whoever is the opponent, Thursday night, Anfield will be rocking," Klopp said on Friday. "And that is all I need. That is all I need."
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Taking an alternative stance is Mohamed Salah, whose social media post on Thursday night provoked plenty of debate about what has been a difficult campaign for the Reds.
In wake of Manchester United's 4-1 win over Chelsea - a result which officially condemned the Reds to Europe's less glamorous tournament next term - Salah posted: "I’m totally devastated. There’s absolutely no excuse for this. We had everything we needed to make it to next year’s Champions League and we failed. We are Liverpool and qualifying to the competition is the bare minimum. I am sorry but it’s too soon for an uplifting or optimistic post. We let you and ourselves down."
Both opinions have merit. Liverpool cannot deny this has been a poor season and the fact that they will still miss out on the top four after a 10-game unbeaten run in the final couple of months shows just how below par they have been for two thirds of the campaign. There can be little sugarcoating of that, as Salah's message shows. The financial hit for a club who are run self-sufficiently under the parsimonious regime of Fenway Sports Group is also a major problem to consider.
However, there is also something to be said for the excitement that will no doubt grow in the coming weeks as something of a new era prepares to dawn for Klopp's Liverpool. The Europa League was patently not part of the plan but the last 10 games have shown enough to suggest this is a squad who are far from a busted flush and with the right additions can get back to the sorts of levels they feel they now belong.
That, then, requires a lot of work to be undertaken during the player trading weeks but anticipation will increase and the collective morale will be boosted when the cavalry of big-money signings arrive through the revolving doors of the AXA Centre.
On Salah's understandably upset post, though, if it is a stance that is reflective of the Liverpool dressing room's general end-of-season consensus, then a short period of downbeat contemplation and bitter frustration is no bad thing for this squad. It is certainly a feeling they won't want to get used to, so using it as a driving force for at least the summer months and the early stages of the 23/24 term can be helpful.
As one of the most recognisable sportsmen on the planet, Salah is keenly aware of the profile he has. His words are always carefully chosen and the outlets he gives them to are even more delicately selected, so his post on Thursday night was not published on an angry whim with little thought to the ramifications of it.
It is why Liverpool supporters should take their 30-goal marksman at face value when he talks about letting them down. It will be something Salah will be desperate to make amends for next time out and it is surely a notion his team-mates will also subscribe to. Those who have lazily speculated that it might be the beginning of an exit strategy have missed the point spectacularly.
"I am really looking forward to the next season, that is all I need," Klopp said on Friday and it was no surprise or shock to hear the manager talking up eagerness of what is to come. A critically important summer on the field will centre around a big-spending midfield rebuild before the club plays host to some of their biggest crowds in decades upon completion of the Anfield Road expansion project.
Klopp and his staff are barely 12 months into new deals that were signed towards the end of last season and there is a real and almost tangible determination around the place to ensure lessons are learned and improvements are made.
But while the manager must take a wider-lens view of the situation, the honest outpouring from Salah should be exactly how the players feel about missing out on the Champions League. Having contested three finals in five years, the Reds players rightly feel like they belong on the grandest stage of European football.
That they will have their faces pressed up to the glass when the draw is made in August should be yet another aspect that emboldens them to make it right. Perhaps, as Salah's message hints, they feel they will owe it to their fans as much as themselves.
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