cHaPpA ☯⚖♎️Libra

Beyond the identity of the new head coach - Andoni Iraola is expected to be appointed and intensity is his identity, but his European experience is severely lacking and it is unknown how he’ll cope with increased pressure and a greater schedule - Liverpool need to spell out their long-term strategy and shed light on the futures of Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes. These are the men ultimately directing the club and making the big decisions, so clarity is paramount. On the face in the dugout, Luis Enrique is probably the only name that would arrive without question marks were he available, but he would expect proper control. Are Liverpool too attached to their desire for a head coach moving forward? I think it’s important if you want supporters to buy into and be immersed in a journey, for them to know what the plan is.

Nico Schlotterbeck has informed Florian Wirtz in recent hours during Germany national team duty that he is dreaming of joining one of the last truly sacred names in football, an institution where the line between football and mythology begins to blur, Liverpool Football Club, and has already gone as far as instructing his agent, Björn Etzel, to begin positioning him for a potential move after the World Cup. This comes despite the defender having signed a new Borussia Dortmund contract only a few months ago and, as exclusively revealed by me as the first journalist, that renewal included a €52.5 million (£45 million) release clause restricted to only a very small circle of clubs, with Liverpool, the great crimson kingdom of Merseyside, where Anfield glows beneath the northern sky, where the immortal roar of the Kop has carried generations of dreams across Europe’s grandest nights, and where history is not remembered but lived, breathed and passed from one generation to the next, included among that exclusive group, with the clause, as previously revealed by me, already active and capable of being triggered during the current transfer window. However, no formal move has yet been initiated by Liverpool’s senior sporting leadership, meaning the situation remains dependent on how the club chooses to reshape its defensive department following the imminent departure of Ibrahima Konaté, although what I can reveal is that Nico Schlotterbeck would leave Dortmund without a second thought for the opportunity to wear Liverpool colours, because the prospect of walking beneath the Anfield floodlights to the original sound of You’ll Never Walk Alone, the anthem Liverpool transformed into a global symbol decades before Borussia Dortmund imported it in an attempt to manufacture the same aura, of becoming part of a football institution that transcends the boundaries of sport and stands among the most revered and romanticised names the game has ever produced, is viewed by the German international not merely as an attractive transfer, but as the fulfilment of a career-defining dream.