When you look back over the modern history of Liverpool football club, it is remarkable how often the first summer transfer window for a manager can prove to make or break their chances of success.
Gerard Houllier solved the defensive issues which had plagued the Reds for most of the 1990s when he signed Sami Hyypia and Stephane Henchoz ahead of the 1999/00 season. Didi Hamann and Vladimir Smicer also joined that summer and would go on to win the Champions League with the club.
For Rafa Benitez, arguably the transfers ahead of year two were more important, as he strengthened the spine of the team with Pepe Reina, Momo Sissoko and Peter Crouch.
Roy Hodgson was hamstrung by both his choice of players and the collapse of the Hicks and Gillett era in 2010/11, while Damien Comolli's transfer strategy did not pay off for Kenny Dalglish 12 months later.
And the most notable transfers of Brendan Rodgers' first season occurred in January, when he acquired Phillippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge for a barely believable combined fee of £20.5 million.
But Liverpool did plenty of good business during Jurgen Klopp 's first summer at the helm, and it is something they will need to repeat in the forthcoming transfer window.
It will not be the manager's first full season on this occasion of course, but it looks likely to share a similarity with the majority of the previous examples.
Benitez is the only Liverpool manager since Joe Fagan in 1983 who approached his first full season in charge with the Reds set to compete in the European Cup or Champions League.
As things stand, Klopp and Liverpool are probably going to be outside the continent's top club competition for the first time since 2016/17.
Yet that didn't stop the club from completing some very important and clever transfer business ahead of that season, when they had no European football of any type to offer new signings.
The most notable acquisition was Sadio Mane from Southampton for £30 million. He hit the ground immediately with a fantastic goal at Arsenal on the opening weekend and would have surely finished as the club's top scorer had he not missed 16 games thanks to injuries and taking part in the Africa Cup of Nations.
Gini Wijnaldum was another key purchase that season, albeit in a more understated way.
But he scored the opening goal against Middlesbrough in the final match of 2016/17 to help secure a Champions League play-off berth, and only Roberto Firmino has played more minutes for Liverpool during Wijnaldum's time on Merseyside.
Liverpool also made a couple of smart additions at the back end of the team in 2016. Joel Matip joined from Schalke on a free transfer, and though he has struggled with injuries over the years, the Cameroonian has often been a first choice for Klopp when available.
Matip started 20 of the final 23 matches in 2018/19 as the Reds chased down glory on two fronts, and he assisted Divock Origi's goal in the Champions League final that year.
While perhaps not making as great an impact over the years as he would have hoped, he has certainly contributed.
Ragnar Klavan was the other defensive reinforcement signed in 2016, and he represented the kind of signings that all squads need - the fourth choice who is largely happy to fulfil that role and usually performs well when called upon.
Liverpool's transfer business in 2021 will need to be similar to what they achieved half a decade earlier, and not just in respect of making shrewd acquisitions while excluded from Europe's top table.
It would be a decent summer if similar types of players were signed too. Most obviously in terms of replacing Wijnaldum, as he looks set to leave, but also by purchasing an exciting new player for the front three.
Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah will all enter their thirties within the next 14 months so another Diogo Jota-style signing could work wonders for the long term health of the attack.
And although Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk are back in training, it remains imperative that the Reds add at least one senior centre-back to their roster.
The club has come an exceptionally long way since 2016 but it appears that they may need to draw inspiration from the summer of that year when the transfer window next opens.