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Federico Chiesa’s own switch has not worked out to date but, having been limited to a bit-part role under Arne Slot, he will go down as a rare miss if he is unable to turn his fortunes around at Anfield.

Before the Dutchman’s arrival, how many unmitigated flops did the Reds really sign under Jurgen Klopp’s watch?

Naby Keita, Thiago Alcantara and Calvin Ramsay were plagued by injury, while the likes of Fabio Carvalho, Takumi Minamino, Sepp van den Berg, Dominic Solanke, Marko Grujic and Ben Davies were all low-cost and sold for considerable profit.



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Arthur Melo, Ozan Kabak and Steven Caulker were all emergency loan signings brought in when the club’s hand was forced by absences elsewhere, returning to their parent clubs after limited impact.

And while the club-record £85m signing of Darwin Nunez has not quite lived up to initial expectations, he has still played his part over the last three seasons and could still play a decisive role in the push for Premier League and Champions League glory.

That arguably leaves Loris Karius as the only signing unable to boast an asterisk next to his name, with the German cursed by his horror show in the 2018 Champions League final.

Even then, what is a small number of players you hoped for more from, against the much larger number of success stories that have led the club to every major honour and are now pursuing a second Premier League title?

But prior to Klopp’s arrival at Liverpool in October 2015, the Reds’ record was prone to being rather more hit and miss.

And one of the biggest flops under owners FSG was the £20m signing of Lazar Markovic from Benfica.

He had shone for the Portuguese outfit in 2013/14, winning the domestic treble of Primeira Liga, Taca de Portugal and Taca da Liga, having already won back-to-back league titles with Partizan Belgrade in his native Serbia.

But he struggled during his time at Liverpool, making 34 appearances and starting 23 times - returning three goals and an assist - before quickly being discarded by Brendan Rodgers after a failed attempt to utilise the forward as a wing-back.

Dismal loan switches to Fenerbache, Sporting Lisbon, Hull City and Anderlecht followed, with Markovic remaining surplus to requirements under Klopp, before Fulham were persuaded to sign the winger on a free transfer in 2019 by Cottagers and Serbia striker Aleksandar Mitrovic.

His fortunes did not improve at Craven Cottage though, as he left after making just one appearance in six months to return to Partizan Belgrade.

Rebuilding his reputation in his homeland, Markovic also made an impact in Turkey with Gaziantep and Trabzonspor.

Ian Graham, Liverpool’s former director of research, concedes that Markovic was just not as good as the scouting reports at the time suggested when he was being touted as ‘the hottest young prospect’ across Europe.

In his book, ‘How to Win the Premier League: The Inside Story of Football's Data Revolution,’ he revealed how the Reds’ sporting director at the time, Michael Edwards, considers signing Markovic as his biggest regret, with Liverpool even changing how they assessed serious transfer targets following their experience with the Serb.

“Markovic looked quite good in our data analysis but we had seen limited minutes: the Portuguese league was not fully covered by our suppliers back in 2014,” he wrote.

“Markovic’s fee of £20 million was very high too - that summer, Antoine Griezmann signed for Atletico Madrid for €30 million and Sadio Mane signed for Southampton for £11.8 million.

“But in every scouting department in Europe, Markovic was the hottest young player of the 2013/14 season and our own scouting reports were very positive.

“Eddy (Michael Edwards) was not sure what to make of the conflicting information, so watched 20 games on video himself.

Scouts at other clubs felt exactly the same way: upon signing Markovic, many other clubs in Europe congratulated us in a way that we never again experienced for any other signing.”

He continued: “Lazar Markovic did not tick nearly every box but was the hottest young prospect in scouting departments across Europe.

His video analysis had also shown a player much more variable than the scouting reports implied.

“Eddy cites signing Markovic as his biggest regret, but at least we learned from the experience.