While the front of house is not always indicative of an exhaustive approach to transfer activity, Liverpool's is a recruitment department that never pauses behind the scenes.
At a time when football at the elite level is more cut-throat than at any other time during the professional game, clubs must work harder and smarter to gain any edge.
Add in the fact that Liverpool are attempting to keep pace with more well-heeled opponents in the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and most notably Manchester City, and it becomes apparent that a slick, open-minded and honest operation is needed across all levels for the department to thrive.
READ MORE: How Thiago Alcantara is helping Liverpool transform £224k defender into 'surprise' midfield savour
Given that intense, external demands to sign players have often fallen on deaf ears inside the club - particularly during this January's transfer window, when the clamour for at least one new midfielder has reached new levels - it's clear those inside the recruitment bubble are not swayed by the court of public opinion.
Instead, the club have largely ignored the noise around their dealings and have become known as some of the most well-respected operators within the market itself as a result. Jurgen Klopp, along with the Reds' first-ever sporting director Michael Edwards, have built a squad that has won every top level trophy available to them since 2019 due to their particular model.
But just what goes into a Liverpool transfer behind the scenes? For reasons that are understandable, given the nature of the business, there are few who are willing to divulge too many of the trade secrets at the AXA Training Centre.
Perhaps the first thing to point out is the importance of a club's relationship with the agents they are hoping to deal with. The Jorge Mendes agency Gestifute is now home to three senior Liverpool stars in Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and Fabinho and the Reds' working terms with the Portuguese organisation has been integral to all three joining the club with relatively minimal fuss in recent years.
“Liverpool have been sort of famed for the last four or five years for being great in the transfer market,” Jamie Carragher says. “Being ahead of the curve if you like, getting players, going under the radar in terms of press speculation. I spoke to Michael Edwards two or three years ago and he said the biggest thing for them was the relationship with agents. Whether that’s speaking to them, financially – I’m sure that plays a big part, I think that’s common knowledge. It was just startling, really."
Sometimes, players are spotted by sheer chance. For example, checks on Pedro Chirivella, while on loan at Willem II in Holland, led to scouts noticing the talents of an up-and-coming left-back by the name of Kostas Tsimikas, who was also temporarily with the Eredivisie outfit.
Those keeping tabs on the Greek defender had noticed significant improvements by the 2019/20 campaign, particularly in the Champions League. By this point, Tsimikas had started to gain interest from clubs in France and Italy but checks on his character led to the establishment of positive terms with his representative Paschalis Tountouris.
Diplomacy and professionalism helped Liverpool clear the pathway in the pursuit of Tsimikas at the turn of 2020 when work started to be undertaken toward that summer's transfer targets. Sevilla and Leicester City attempted to join the race for the defender but Tsimikas had already committed his future to Anfield, thanks, largely, to the healthy terms that had been struck.
"Sometimes managers can't get out on scouting visits, so you get sent out on flights to watch players," says one scout at a European regular. "Agents are key too, they can sometimes see your club is key to the next development of the player as well, so that is always important for you too the agent seeing the next platform for their clients.
"It's nice to work with good agents who believe in their boys and the pathway they are on. You watch them countless times but sometimes you just know when you see someone. You use your contacts and the people whose judgement you trust too because football is all about contacts."
Those who do the talent spotting for Liverpool have spoken privately about a refusal to be definitive in their ruling out of a player for a long time before that call is eventually made. Age is perhaps the only real factor that would exclude anyone from having the rule ran over them initially. It's accepted that players under a certain age still have ample room to grow, develop and improve, even if the threshold for those to be seriously considered has steadily risen in recent years.
Often the role is about eliminating players from potential shortlists as much as it is identifying potential additions. A scout at Liverpool is not typically judged on the amount of players brought in from their particular area of the world. Such a model could lead to unsuitable players being brought in.
Attending a game with a view to specifically follow one player is a dated idea, particularly with an operation like Liverpool's, whose scouting department is relatively small for a club of its size. As a result, organisation and information are the tentpoles to success in this area of football.
"It's more about knowing one region very well and watching this region you generate knowledge and then this knowledge is held by the scouting and recruitment department," says one source familiar with the operation.
"Once you have an idea [of a target], you put it around to some of the staff and then you get back-up information from analyst staff, statistics, scouting videos and your own coaching staff, you can marry it all together and then you know you have an interesting player," adds one scout who works for a club who are regularly involved in the Champions League.
"It's the way to do it. You're mixing old technology with new technology and when you come up with the same answer that's when you know [you have a player]. Sometimes it can be a no-brainer when you watch them play and then delve a little deeper."
It was reported by The Athletic in 2020 that players are divided into four categories marked A to D. Those in the former bracket are seen as must-haves who are capable of transforming the long-term hopes of the team. Think Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker. Those with B grades are seen as having the potential to contribute within the framework over time. The likes of Ibrahima Konate and Diogo Jota are likely to have been bracketed in the B column.
Those within the department are all generally considered to have a similar profile: hard-working, low key and unassuming. It allows the Reds to operate more fluidly, away from the media's glare and it was telling how many politely turned down the ECHO's approaches for this particular article. It's a part of the football operations side that needs secrecy and discretion more than any other, particularly when battling against bigger workforces with more resources.
Occasionally scouts will be used for more than just spotting the ability of an up-and-coming player. Liverpool tapped into the contacts book of their South American scout, Gonzalo Siegrist 12 months ago to help arrange a late medical for Luis Diaz.
With Diaz on duty for Colombia in Argentina, the Buenos Aires-based Siegrist was called upon to help iron out the details for the winger to undergo the procedure ahead of eventually completing his switch from Porto.
The Reds generally pursue players with greater aggression when they are younger and while the high bar set by the team in recent years now makes it harder for teenage hopefuls to make the grade, long term, the club never stop assessing the merits of the brightest around. Additions of Ben Doak and Kaide Gordon are proof of Liverpool's commitment to that ethos across English football over the past couple of years, while the risk of Stefan Bajcetic has been remarkable since he joined from Celta Vigo for £200,000 at the start of 2021.
It's understood there will be a particular focus on displays in the Champions League, too, where the standard is generally accepted to be greater than the domestic matches of certain leagues, so different skillsets are analysed based on the quality of opposition they are up against.
There is more than one way of finding a suitable player, though. While the processes are well worn and generally adhered to due to the success of recent years, sometimes a player can be sourced from by other means. Klopp, while always willing to listen to the input of key figures like head of recruitment Dave Fallows and chief scout Barry Hunter, has the final say.
It was the Reds boss who was understood to have been massively impressed by what he saw from Nunez when Liverpool analysed Benfica before their Champions League quarter-final tie, although the references given to Pep Lijnders from contacts in Portugal helped bring the forward in back in September 2020. It's likely the assistant boss also had significant input in the decision to sign Cody Gakpo at the start of the month.
For all the rise in data analysis in football in recent years and its growing importance to clubs like the Reds, the traditional methods are still as vital as ever to many within the game. "Sometimes people just go into the game without anyone knowing who they are and what they are there for and they can fire a note back to you," admits one. "I quite like that form of scouting.
"There's no pressure. Sometimes when you watch games in Portugal or somewhere and they list the scouts in attendance, that can sometimes get into players' minds, you know? Sometimes it's better to go in as an unknown."
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