For Jurgen Klopp, good things really do come to those who wait.
The Liverpool manager believes that his policy of refusing to settle for second best, and instead remaining patient for his number one targets will finally pay dividends this season.
Not only did he decline to hit the panic button when he couldn’t get Southampton centre-back Virgil van Dijk last summer, eventually doing the deal in January, he also remained calm enough to agree a deal that made him pause for a whole year in his wait for RB Leipzig midfielder Naby Keita .
Already, after just three Premier League games, it seems worth it.
Now, they hope he can provide the platform for the team to go one step better than they managed in last season’s Champions League, when the Reds suffered heartbreaking final defeat as Real Madrid lifted the famous trophy for a third season running.
Liverpool could get an early reunion with the Spaniards and bogeyman Sergio Ramos when this season’s group phase draw takes place on Thursday afternoon.
If that happens, Madrid will discover the Reds have a new dimension with Keita’s ability to provide the link between defence and attack that was missing in that May showdown in Kiev.
Capturing the Guinea international for £52.75million is looking a coup for Klopp.
Former Red and now TV pundit Danny Murphy proclaimed: “Keita will be the Premier League’s best signing this summer.
“Liverpool will expect a lot from him and I’m expecting him to take them to the next level.
"He’s a very dynamic player, very powerful and very quick. It is an incredible transfer that could allow them to close the gap on Manchester City.”
Klopp was in no doubt.
He has spoken several times of the need to be forensic in the search for new players, and to trust the squad he already has if he cannot immediately secure a target he knows will improve it.
That stance has had more resonance recently, with Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward briefing that the club were reluctant to spend on targets who were third and fourth on their list when they were felt to be no better than players already at Old Trafford.
For Klopp, the wait was worth it, not least because Keita allows his forwards more freedom within Liverpool’s system — freeing Sadio Mane in particular to support “a bizarre formation, where Mo Salah can be centre-forward and Mane in midfield.”
That bizarre-sounding system works.
In their three games so far, Liverpool have created sufficient chances to win each one comfortably while conceding only one opportunity that statisticians OPTA deem a ‘good chance’.
"We are very, very happy to have him here, finally,” Klopp explained. “Quality. It’s all good. Naby comes from a similar football philosophy, and he’s very sharp in the challenges, very quick in mind in these situations of counter-pressing, his impulses look kind of natural.
“I have contact with a lot of people in the Bundesliga, as you can imagine, and I have never had so many congratulations messages as I had after signing Naby! He’s the player of the league, that’s how it is.
“Last year, together with Thiago Alcantara, who played an outstanding season for Bayern, he was the flier. He’s been doing this for two or three years, with different clubs in different leagues, but he’s still a young boy.”
Keita brings two players in one, which is why there is so much excitement that, when he truly settles in at Anfield, he can be the added ingredient that allows Liverpool to win matches they either drew or lost last season.
The Reds were unbeaten at home, but drew seven games — too many — at Anfield.
And Keita’s former Leipzig coach Ralph Hasenhuttl says he will make a massive difference.
He said: "The lad’s just that good. Jurgen will be thankful for the reinforcement. If there’s one player I don’t have any fear that he can make it at every club in the world, then that’s Naby.
"Barcelona wanted him as a replacement for Andres Iniesta, but Liverpool wanted him more."
Such ‘new Iniesta’ talk is not fanciful.
Keita modelled his early style on the Nou Camp legend, and was known to watch clips of the Spaniard in action to motivate himself before Leipzig games.
And Frederic Arpinon, the scout who identified the Guinea international for the German club when he was at Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg, says the comparison is not ridiculous:
“Straight away, he reminded me of Iniesta. His technique was excellent, he was so good on the ball, he was strong and he could pass it well. He can do the defensive work so well – when he lost the ball, he worked so hard to win it back. But he is creative running and passing around the penalty area.
“He could do everything.”
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