Before Mohamed Salah became the highest-paid player in Liverpool's history in the summer of 2022, then-director of research Ian Graham was tasked with establishing whether the Egyptian was really worthy of a lucrative contract extension.
Salah had already proven himself one of the best signings in Premier League history. After arriving at Anfield in June 2017, the £43 million ($56m) signing from Roma broke one record after another as he helped Jurgen Klopp's Reds win nearly every major honour in the game.
However, Salah was about to turn 30, an age at which many players - and particularly pacey forwards - began to show signs of decline. Consequently, Graham "went into the analysis fully expecting to say, 'Now is the time to sell.' But, to my surprise, it was instead 'Mo is going to keep producing for a couple of years and you can't replace Mo's level of performance.'"
Remarkably, little has changed in the interim. An injury-affected Salah may have suffered a slump towards the tail end of last season, but it's already clear after three rounds of the new Premier League season that, at 32, he remains the best - and most prolific - right-winger in world football.
Why, then, have Liverpool allowed the contract Salah signed in 2022 to enter its final year? And how is it even possible that such a valuable asset could be allowed to leave for nothing at the end of the season?