Then i look at the squad and it's probably the strongest in my living memory. Maybe '89 was the last time i saw a squad close to this strong, but i was 9.
I think that's right.
It's interesting observing how we're reacting to the inactivity in this window.
My sense of it is that it's not as much to do with what we're not doing, as much as it is to do with what others are doing.
All the talk of the Kanes and Sanchos moving to City and United makes us feel like our chance to win more trophies under Klopp is under threat.
And I think that's the second, fairly important psychological factor at work. We all know Klopp's got 3 years on his contract, and more likely than not, he'll move on after that.
Over the past 6 years Klopp (and Edwards) have well and truly returned the club to glory after many years in the wilderness. The fear that we might lose our moment of supremacy so soon after having regained it is real.
But more so than that, and I think existentially the bigger issue, is the question of how the club is managed towards longer term success.
A big part of what that means is transitioning the current squad, which is starting to get older, to a younger squad capable of winning things 2-3 seasons from now.
That's why we let Gini go. That's why there's all this angst around other contracts.
Fundamentally I think its' pretty difficult for the club to balance continuing to win in the present, while bringing in a new generation of players to win the future. I think in the last 30 years maybe two teams have managed it - United and City. Both did so with overwhelming financial superiority, as well as being well managed from a footballing perspective.
We have to do that without the overwhelming financial superiority - and in fact we're probably facing even fiercer competition from new sugar daddies, from COVID, pointless distractions like the super league, and the failure of the FFP.
So the stakes feel incredibly high.
But if we look at who we have on deck this season, then barring a horrific injury crisis, we once again have one of the best squads in Europe and are a good chance of winning each tournament.
The key thing to watch out for isn't so much whether we replace Gini now or Bobby tomorrow, but who we replace them with, when we do.