They say in football that it's not always what you know but who you know. At Liverpool, it seems both aspects are as important as each other when it comes to recruitment.
A cursory glance across the current squad shows a handful of players whose arrivals have been rubber stamped after consultation with trusted contacts outside of the club.
Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz, for example, were two deals completed after Pep Lijnders spoke to those in the know at his former club Porto and the same goes for January signing Cody Gakpo, who, as one of the young stars in the Netherlands national team, was someone the assistant manager knew all about prior to his £37m move from PSV Eindhoven at the turn of the year. Virgil van Dijk also helped smooth the runway, having forged a friendship with Gakpo during their time together on Oranje duty.
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Information on Naby Keita, Sadio Mane, Takumi Minamino and Ibrahima Konate was gleaned through the Reds' positive terms with the Red Bull football network, with former sporting director Michael Edwards, in particular, said to have been key.
Current sporting director Julian Ward's bulging contacts book when it comes to Portuguese football was also used when the club were putting together plans to sign both £64m striker Darwin Nunez from Benfica in June and Diaz in January 2022 and that particular market is one that has become more prevalent for Liverpool's recruitment team.
The decision to step away from what would have been a club-record pursuit for Jude Bellingham recently has opened up the prospect of Liverpool's transfer budget being spread across a handful of other, less-expensive options instead as Jurgen Klopp gets set to tackle a midfield rebuild head-on this coming summer.
Since then, the Reds have inevitably been linked with a vast array of central midfielders as Klopp looks to continue putting the blocks in place for another great Liverpool team. The Brighton duo of Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister are being monitored, while interest in Chelsea pair Conor Gallagher and Mason Mount is genuine.
Wolves' Matheus Nunes is someone who has his admirers, despite an indifferent first season in the Premier League, while Fulham's Joao Palhinha is another who is said to be under consideration - two more who made their name in Portugal before moving to England.
The centre of the pitch is an area that has been singled out for much criticism across the course of a campaign that currently leaves Liverpool seven points off Manchester United, who occupy the final Champions League spot with a game in hand still to be played.
As a result of an ordinary season, the costly renovation to the engine room is a topic that has been hotly debated among an expectant fanbase keen to see some significant investment in the transfer market this coming summer.
"It is normal to be criticised if it doesn't happen the way everyone wants," says Fabinho. "Liverpool is a team to be fighting for trophies - for the Premier League and the Champions League trophy - but unfortunately this season, that has not happened so the press will always look to say: 'This is the problem, this player doesn't play like he used to'.
"Personally I try to focus on my game. I try to get better and if I see that I am not doing my best, I will try to find out why and to get better in this aspect. I think as a team it is not always easy to keep playing at the highest level and win trophies every season.
"This is my fifth season for Liverpool and we were always fighting for the Premier League and the Champions League and for the cups as well. What we did last season was unbelievable. We fought for every trophy until the end of the season and we won two of them, so it was a successful season for us.
"But when you are always playing at a high level, you need to be at your best physically and mentally, so sometimes the level has dropped. When the level drops people will say: 'Why are not they not playing the same way? Why are they not winning like they used to?'
"We are humans, we are not machines who can always play the same way and at the same level. We try to be at the highest level possible, but sometimes this does not happen."
Away from the Premier League, however, and Liverpool continue to be named in connection with a number of players on the continent, with Sporting Lisbon's Manuel Ugarte the latest alongside Florentino Luis of Benfica.
Luis has enjoyed a fine campaign with Benfica, helping them to the quarter-finals of the Champions League by providing a solid defensive midfield basis for a side who have rattled in a competition-high 26 goals.
"He is known as the Octopus," says one source due to his rangy tackling ability. Those who have watched the 23-year-old closely in recent years have noted an increased physicality and intensity to his game with new Portugal manager Roberto Martinez hinting recently that Luis will soon receive his maiden call-up for the Seleccao.
He is the player with most interceptions in the Champions League this year with 19, while only Marco Verratti of Paris Saint-Germain has registered more tackles than Luis's 24 that place him above both Bellingham and Thiago Alcantara's joint tally of 22 in third.
His 'defensive actions' in the opposition half is measured at 3.8 per 90 minutes, marking him out as the most effective for that metric in Europe's top six leagues. The same goes for his interceptions-per-90, which again has him in the top spot at 2.92
Luis's eight Champions League fixtures saw him clock up an average of 11.6km a game, which is the most in the European Cup by as much as nearly three kilometres a match. A metric that might pique particular interest considering Liverpool's is a midfield that is often tasked with putting in the hard yards. Fifty appearances so far this term also suggest a durability that has been a major problem at Anfield throughout for so many.
Liverpool's healthy working relationship with Benfica - perhaps the elite selling club of European football over the last decade - is another agreeable element to any potential move for Luis, but there are several others of interest on a transfer shortlist that is lengthier than it might normally be in the final month of the season.
The defensive-minded Ugarte - who has a reported release clause of €60 million - has been described "as a combat vehicle" by sources who know the Sporting star. A replacement for another Reds target Palhinha - who moved to Fulham last summer for around £17m - the Uruguay international has played 82 times for the Lisbon side since moving from Famalicao for around £6m nearly two years ago.
A League Cup winner with Sporting, the 23-year-old has drawn plenty of plaudits for his uncompromising style and his eight caps to date suggest he is a star-in-the-making for his national side.
Portuguese agency Gestifute is one who Liverpool have dealt with amicably over much of the last five years during their deals and contracts for the likes of Fabinho, Jota and Nunez and the professionalism of those within the Jorge Mendes-founded company was widely commended inside the club when negotiations for Jota, in particular, were concluded with minimal fuss away from the glare of the media in September 2020.
However, despite influential website Transfermarkt homing Ugarte on the list of Gestifute clients, those with knowledge of the situation say the agreement between Mendes and the midfielder's actual representative, Jorge Chijane, has seen them enter into a partnership of sorts where details are scarce. That, though, should not prove too problematic if Liverpool do decide to make a formal move later this year.
Liverpool scouts were said to have been in attendance for Sporting's 2-1 win over Ugarte's former club Famalicao on Sunday night at Estadio Alvalade, leading several to suggest that he was the object of attention for the talent spotters.
The Anfield scouting department, however, is typically smaller than other operations of similar-sized clubs, meaning the rule is being run over more than just one if a representative is at a game. More often than not, a player is being watched to definitively rule him out, which can take around a dozen times before any decision is made either way.
That being said, Anfield insiders have refused to dismiss reports in Portugal linking them with a summer move for Uruguay international Ugarte and like previous deals, those in the know in Portugal and Ugarte's international colleague Nunez might all be consulted before any decision is made either way.
Because as Liverpool have proven, it's who you know just as much as what you know.
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