In an ideal world, Jurgen Klopp would prefer to have his transfer business completed before the start of pre-season.
Twelve months ago the new arrivals were all signed and sealed as early as June 20 as Calvin Ramsay joined Darwin Nunez and Fabio Carvalho through the doors of the AXA Training Centre in Kirkby.
A year earlier, Ibrahima Konate's signature was captured in late May after his release clause was triggered at RB Leipzig for him to join in time for the summer schedule that saw Liverpool spend a month away from Merseyside at two camps in Austria and France.
Klopp insisted in his final pre-match press conference of the Premier League season last month that he hoped he would be able to toast to his transfer business being wrapped up within "six or seven weeks" of the final whistle on May 28.
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The Reds boss said: "The better the players you want, the lesser is the desire of the other club to let him go. And that's exactly what we are prepared for.
"But it's a long window and a long pre-season and a long break in between, so we have time if we get in players tomorrow or in six or seven weeks. It is not a game-changer for me, to be honest.
"In an ideal world they all sign tomorrow and I can tell them when to be and we can start giving them the plans for the summer break but that will not likely happen."
Having completed a deal for Alexis Mac Allister less than a fortnight after Liverpool's season had ended when the Argentina international moved from Brighton & Hove Albion for a fee believed to be around £35m, attention has now turned.
The Reds are continuing to assess the runners and riders of their midfield shortlist with a quartet of them set to be involved at the Under-21s European Championships, which get underway in Romania and Georgia on Wednesday. Ryan Gravenberch of Holland is a target, while there is firm interest in France international Khephren Thuram. His fellow les Bleus youngster Manu Kone is another being looked at alongside Spain's Gabri Veiga.
And while the desire to get players in earlier is fuelled by the need to introduce them into the style of play preferred under Klopp, there are often unseen benefits to concluding transfer business earlier.
While the tactical tweaks, the on-the-field instructions and the intense demands will be absorbed easier the earlier a player moves to Liverpool, the pre-season schedule is also the perfect opportunity to further the bond that exists between the current crop of players.
Essentially, the earlier a player signs, the quicker they are able to be integrated into a particularly close-knit group of players, many of whom have been stars at Anfield for the past five years.
In the summer of 2018, for example, Naby Keita reported for duty speaking little English following his £52m move from RB Leipzig at the start of the summer, but a bonding session at the club's Evian base was vital for him getting to know his new colleagues.
The Guinea international, who joined Werder Bremen as a free agent earlier this month, partnered up with Daniel Sturridge during a karaoke night as the pair performed a duet of Mario's 2004 hit 'Let Me Love You'.
"Like a lot of the lads, he’s a good laugh, but he’s also given me a lot of advice about the settling-in process and also in terms of motivation," Keita later said of his burgeoning friendship with Sturridge. "He’s a very positive and motivating player, so this month has been very good and I’ve spent a lot of time with him. He’s a great guy."
Keita added: “There were a lot of new players there obviously and we had this rite of passage where everybody had to get up and sing, and I did my bit. I really did enjoy it – I was quite nervous, but I did enjoy it!"
The performance was part of the customary initiation ceremony for new arrivals and while Xherdan Shaqiri's rendition of Three Little Birds by Bob Marley perhaps left something to be desired, Alisson Becker was said to have been the standout performer of the night when he treated his new team-mates to an acoustic set with his guitar.
Last year, it was little-known kit man Yinka Ademuyiwa who stole the show at Liverpool's Austria base when he went viral due to his performance of Vanilla Ice's 'Ice Ice Baby', while fishing trips for the club's South American contingent were also organised, which helped the likes of Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez continue to adapt at the club on what was their first pre-season with the Reds.
The same will be expected next month when Liverpool fly out to Germany to settle at a base in the Black Forest before friendlies with Greuther Furth and Karlsruhe.
July 8 will mark the first day of pre-season training at the AXA Centre, where, in an ideal scenario, new signings will report before joining the club on the flight to Klopp's homeland.
"I think we all set it up for embarrassment that somebody goes up there and has to go through hell with the mic in your hand and you have to sing a song you cannot sing," Klopp later said. "You cannot whatever, you don't know the song, all these kind of things. But the atmosphere was great, with all the fun we had [it was] still respectful. I had a big meeting last night and I told the boys [that] I never saw something like this. It's the truth."
Such activities are often seen as a simple way of relaxing after the double sessions of training and providing some stimulus to the players and staff outside of their work demands, but they are also an important part of creating the kind of spirit that can hold a team in good stead across the often long and gruelling campaigns.
"This is the basis we have to use," Klopp says. "We as a group, the way we interact really with each other is something special, and we have to make sure we can use that for something big."
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