For most of the last decade at Liverpool, the prospect of having to replace Mohamed Salah has been unthinkable.
That, though, is what is now immediately facing sporting director Richard Hughes and a recruitment department that will have to once more prove why it is has broadly been the envy of football these past nine years.
It's difficult to recall now, given Salah's remarkable service, that he was not initially the first choice of Jurgen Klopp in the summer of 2017.
With Liverpool back in the Champions League for the first time in three years, Klopp was eyeing a move for Julian Brandt, then of Bayer Leverkusen, only to be swayed by the persuasive words of sporting director Michael Edwards and Barry Hunter and Dave Fallows, two Anfield stalwarts who served as the chief scout and head of recruitment, respectively.
As Klopp recalled inside the early weeks of Salah's 44-goal maiden term: “The scouting department was really behind me, and wanted to do it even earlier so that nobody could jump in. We were sure he can help us. Michael Edwards, Dave Fallows and Barry Hunter, they were really in my ear and were on it: ‘Come on, come on, Mo Salah, he’s the solution!'"
But if Salah was once the solution, he is now the problem. Specifically, just who is tasked with succeeding a player who is behind only Roger Hunt and Ian Rush in the list of all-time scorers at Anfield.
Those who follow have enormous shoes to fill. But just how exactly will Liverpool broach a subject they have steadfastly tried to avoid for so long through record-breaking and history-making contracts on Merseyside?
Since Salah's Tuesday night video confirmed his end-of-season exit, several names have emerged: Michael Olise from Bayern Munich, Yan Diomande of RB Leipzig and Juventus winger Francisco Conceicao have all been linked with the Reds.
The ECHO was informed last week that Liverpool were keeping tabs on Juve's Portugal international Conceicao but checks with multiple sources at Anfield have downplayed interest in the 23-year-old. Scouting at a club the size of Liverpool, where only a small percentage of players across the continent are good enough to succeed, often focuses more on eliminating players from consideration.
“I know people talk about a big club, but I play for a big club where I am happy," Conceicao said last week when asked directly about Liverpool interest. “At the moment I am only focused on these two games with the national team and then I will focus on the final stretch of the season to help my club as much as possible.”
Liverpool have a superb relationship with RB Leipzig and have worked on more than a handful of deals together of the last 10 years. That could help if it is Diomande who fits the bill but talk of £100m-plus for a 19-year-old will surely have to be reset to a fee more realistic if real negotiations begin.
"People made [Liverpool] out to be my dream club," Diomande said last month. "But first and foremost, it's my dad's favourite club. It was always his great wish to see me play there someday because he loves the atmosphere at Anfield. He always raved about Steven Gerrard.
"I was too young to see him play. We didn't even have a TV at home for a long time. I have a lot of respect for Liverpool, but my dream club right now is Leipzig."
Olise is viewed as prohibitive at this stage. The 24-year-old's star has risen considerably since he traded Crystal Palace for Bayern Munich and he has been one of the Bundesliga's outstanding players this season.
A potential deal for the France international could reach club-record levels for Liverpool, who forked out £116m and £125m on Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak alone last summer and Bayern have no intention of listening to offers for Olise at this stage.
"We're not even considering that," Bayern sporting director Max Eberl told German publication BILD last week. "He's an FC Bayern player and has all the opportunities here that top players could wish for."CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen, added: "No matter which club tries to lure him away, anyone who plays for FC Bayern knows what they have at FC Bayern."
Anfield figures point towards the £320m spent on Isak, Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike last summer as reasons why Salah's 'successor' may already be inside the AXA Training Centre. There's an acceptance that a player who rose to third in the club's goalscoring charts is simply irreplaceable in the traditional sense and that was something Jurgen Klopp echoed when speaking on Friday.
"This specific kind of player is irreplaceable," Klopp said. "That’s always how it is. There will be a void that somebody will fill. It’s always in our minds how much time, how much space – yeah, how much time do we give to whoever is going to play there in whatever system the manager will play? But the specific player, Mo Salah? I’m not sure there is even another one existing out there."
Internally, they are determined to see through the idea of getting Wirtz, Ekitike and Isak together on a more consistent basis. The trio have graced the same pitch for just 88 minutes this season, which, in part, explains a lot of the problems in the final third.
Ekitike has led the line for most of the campaign and he will become the first player to top the scoring charts not named Salah since 2017, when Philippe Coutinho scored 14 times. France international Ekitike is currently on 17 for the Reds in maiden campaign and the impending return of Isak will give Arne Slot more options.
Sweden international Isak hasn't played since December 20 when he broke his leg in a tackle by Tottenham Hotspur's Micky van den Ven when opening the scoring in that 2-1 win in London and while he is expected back in April, expectations will be tempered by what has been a season of enormous difficulties for the most expensive player in British football history.
Slot spoke earlier this season of adapting his attacking patterns to get the best out of Isak, who registered 44 goals in his last two full Premier League campaigns at Newcastle United and there is a school of thought that suggests a different type of profile will be looked at this summer as a result.
Isak dovetailed superbly with Jacob Murphy at Newcastle, with the winger responsible for the lion's share of assists for the Reds' current No.9 and while a similar type of player means a change in what Liverpool want from their widemen, who have tended to cut inside on their stronger foot and be the main source of goals in the last decade, getting as close to full value from the £125m Isak has to now take priority.
That also opens up the prospect of Ekitike operating consistently in a left-sided role rather than centrally, where he has been asked to play most weeks, particularly since Isak suffered his injury at Spurs.
A winger will sought after this summer to add more quality to a Liverpool frontline that lost Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz and, tragically, Diogo Jota last year but the idea that the target in question must replicate Salah's output in front of goal has been dismissed. That is viewed as nigh-on impossible given the 255 goals scored by the Egyptian since 2017.
From Liverpool's perspective, reaching an agreement as early as possible for Salah to leave as a free agent makes sense. This affords them the knowledge in good time before the window opens that the player's reported salary of £400,000 a week will be off what is one of the biggest wage bills in football, saving the club around £21m for what would have been the final year of his contract.
Given Salah's eye-watering pay, extracting a fee from interested parties in the summer was viewed as difficult and while the Saudi Pro League has often been held up the next destination for the Egyptian, it's unclear at this stage how much appetite there is from the biggest clubs in the region to pay a transfer fee on top of salary demands of a bona-fide superstar.
Al-Ittihad are viewed as the front runners from the SPL and while there has been no contact of as yet, there is little denial from the Middle Eastern giants, who could lose former Aston Villa star Moussa Diaby to free up a spot in their squad. “There has been no official contact to sign Mohamed Salah so far, but of course we want to sign him," an Ittihad source was quote as telling 365scores last week. "He is a great player and will add huge marketing value to the club.“Since the beginning of our sporting project, there was an agreement that Mohamed Salah would join Al-Ittihad, but the deal fell through at the time for financial reasons unrelated to the club. We are the most deserving to sign him because we were the first to negotiate through his agent earlier.
The player has been urged to remain in Europe by Egypt's technical director Ibrahim Hossan, who said on Monday: “I would prefer him to stay in Europe. I have heard about offers from Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and clubs in the Italian league.
"He would be far too out of the spotlight [in the MLS]. You won’t remember Salah any more than I remember Lionel Messi now; I don’t even try to watch him. If he does not receive offers from Europe, then a move to the Saudi Pro League would be a good option, especially with big names such as Cristiano Ronaldo."
Replacing Salah is Liverpool's biggest recruitment test since Klopp chose to leave two years ago. What was once unthinkable now needs to be given an incredible amount of thought.
