Sadio Mane has achieved the near impossible: a flawless departure from a big club in 2022

Arsenal need to sign a striker to be competitive next season

Spurs are looking strong but they still need to add depth

Chelsea are paying for previous mistakes in this transfer window

Lukaku is one of the worst transfer mistakes of modern times

Barcelona set to beat Chelsea to Jules Kounde

Premier League trio chasing Gareth Bale

West Ham have season to remember despite missing out on Europa League

Man United needing to spend big money on their targets

Leeds need their fans onside for a new era

No CL for Arsenal hurts their Raphinha chances

It is almost impossible in your modern football world where tribal insanity conquers all reason, but has Sadio Mane just managed to achieve the perfect big club exit?

Certainly, the general reaction from Liverpool fans would suggest that he’s come as close to nailing it as can possibly be expected. There are fringe lunacies, of course, because football fans are still humans with all their foibles and oddnesses, but in the main the reaction from Reds appears to land again and again in the same places. Disappointment, gratitude, reminiscing about the great times and a fair amount of understanding. I’d contend that when you leave any football club these are the precise emotions you would want to evoke.

Even disappointment isn’t a negative emotion here; if there’s no disappointment at your exit then there can only have been disappointment at your presence. And that’s definitely worse.

Mane has played this very well indeed. He’s not just run his contract down and left on a free, which would have been perfectly understandable. Liverpool have got some money and fans have got some ammunition whenever the latest round of the Great Net Spend Wars gets under way.

He’s also, and this feels very