When Sadio Mane arrived at Liverpool during the summer of 2016, Jurgen Klopp will have been fully aware of the player type the Reds had recruited.
Klopp had been tracking the progress of the Senegalese star during his time in charge of Borussia Dortmund, though opted against a deal to sign the jet-heeled winger. Instead, Mane joined Southampton and didn't take long to remind the Reds' boss of why this was a poor decision.
Scoring in all three matches he played against Liverpool during the 2015/16 season, Mane saved the best until last when the two teams met for the final time in March 2016. Leading 2-0 on the South Coast thanks to Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho, the Saints' No.10 bagged a brace having been introduced at half-time as Ronald Koeman's men completed a 3-2 turnaround.
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This would prove to be Mane's final head-to-head against the Reds, which occurred on this day seven years ago, making the switch to Anfield a matter of months later in a £34million deal. After turning down the chance to bring the 30-year-old to Dortmund in 2014, Klopp was not prepared to make the same mistake twice.
"It was a pretty simple decision with Sadio this summer because I made the mistake at Dortmund where I didn’t take him,” explained Klopp. “We met each other, we talked but by the end I didn’t feel this [strikes hands together]. About three months later I would have punched myself, so I already knew that the next chance I have, I would take it.
"So it was not a difficult decision. When the club came this summer and Michael Edwards [Liverpool’s new sporting director] said we have an opportunity there were no talks necessary any more. It was a case of: ‘Let’s do it.’
“I don’t know why I didn’t sign him before. I like the player, it was more of a feeling. At Dortmund we could only get one player for this position, not two or three, so it needed to be exactly the right fit in this moment. I’ve said a lot of times, I’m not a genius and I couldn’t exactly imagine where he was in terms of playing in the Austrian league and what does the Austrian league mean for the football [at Dortmund]? I have made more mistakes in my life like this but he would have been more expensive if we had taken him to Dortmund and then he had been sold to Liverpool, so all good for Liverpool. The more I think about it, that was my first Liverpool decision. Nice.”
Though ridiculed by rival supporters for the price involved to make this transfer possible, it was the Reds who would undoubtedly have the last laugh after witnessing the meteoric rise of the electric forward. An integral part in Liverpool securing Champions League during his debut campaign, Mane went from strength to strength with each passing season while forming formidable partnerships with Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah.
Ranked 14th in the club's list of all-time top goalscorers (120), the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations winner will go down as one of the very best to sport the Reds shirt and left many supporters heartbroken after deciding to pursue a new chapter at Bayern Munich following the Champions League final defeat by Real Madrid back in May.
After a bright start to his Bayern career, featuring six goals in his opening 14 Bundesliga games, a leg injury sustained in November halted his progress and led to Mane being unable to represent his home country at the World Cup in Qatar. Sidelined until the end of February, this setback will no doubt have left the attacker frustrated after being unable to showcase his ability over a prolonged period.
Despite heading for the Anfield exit doors back in June, Mane has remained a conversation topic among Liverpool supporters. Some have suggested it was a mistake to allow the 2019 Champions League winner depart and that Klopp's side had failed to successfully handle this unexpected change.
This question was recently posed to Andy Robertson, who admitted he was sad to see his former team-mate go but downplayed the idea of the team missing Mane. "To be honest, no," said the Scot on BBC Radio 5Live.
"Don't get me wrong, I had a fantastic relationship with Sadio in terms of me and him down the left-hand side for five years. He was a joy to play with, every game. I loved playing with him, we linked really well. He helped me going back, the way I helped him going forward. And yeah we linked up really well. When he left, there was probably no-one more gutted than me because of the relationship we had.
"But we've got fantastic players that can play in their positions. We brought in Darwin [Nunez], who has been really good to start. We've got Luis Diaz who has obviously been injured and re-injured and things like that, which is difficult. Jots [Diogo Jota] can play there, who's got injured.
“We have been a little bit unlucky with injuries, I think once we get them back fully fit then yeah. Look, Sadio was a wonderful player, a Liverpool legend but he wanted to go and he went to Bayern Munich and we wish him all the best."
Whenever the time comes for Mane and Liverpool to meet again, it seems certain he will be shown the respect he deserves.
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