The great teams grasp the moment: Liverpool are still short of that title

So what next? Where do Liverpool go from here? This was a season that came agonisingly close to perfection. One fewer goal for Manchester City or one more goal for Aston Villa on the final day of the season and the league title would have been Liverpool’s. One fewer save from Thibaut Courtois and they would have taken the Champions League final into extra time. The Quadruple has never been so close for any club, and yet Liverpool achieved no more than to match the feat of Arsenal in 1992-93 and, with all due respect to Steve Morrow, John Jensen and Andy Linighan, nobody talks about them as one of the greatest sides of all time.

Contexts, of course, change. This is an extremely good team. Jürgen Klopp and the vast team of specialists behind him have created something extraordinary, a thrilling side that, for a net transfer spend less than that of Everton, has managed to keep pace with Manchester City – even if they have beaten them to the title only once.

This City is a great team, but one put together, from the training facilities to the backroom staff to the manager to the squad, at enormous expense. And City, unlike most previous exercises in mega-investment in football, has been constructed extremely cleverly; in recent years there have been no ego signings, little wastage.

To remain within touching distance of that on a net transfer spend of only £200m over six years is remarkable. And yet the financial structures that count against Liverpool in that regard, as they look up, also play to their advantage as they look down. They are one of England’s elite, by dint of their history and the investment of Fenway Sports Group (which, lest anybody forget, was only too keen to leap aboard the Super League project a year