IAN LADYMAN: Klopp won't want to wade through treacle with this team. Liverpool risk LOSING him unless they get their signings right... PLUS, Kompany is perfect for Spurs, but would he come?

I remember once standing in a small room at Liverpool’s old training ground in January 2018 and listening to Jurgen Klopp talking about the sale that week of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona.

Leaning against the wall, the Liverpool manager’s countenance was one of deep resignation.

Klopp had been at Anfield a little over two years, had not at that point won anything and the departure of the Brazilian to the Nou Camp had put something of a torpedo right through the middle of his plans.

Strange, then, that we look back at that period now as lift-off for Liverpool. They had bought Mo Salah and Andrew Robertson the summer before and, aware the Coutinho deal was imminent, bought Virgil van Dijk just days before he left. Then, the following summer, a new goalkeeper, Alisson Becker, and midfielder, Fabinho, also arrived.

Those five players — among others — were to form the cornerstone of a team that won everything there was to win over the following three seasons.

This was Liverpool at their smartest. Value-for-money transfers that paid off immediately. Future-proofing in such a way that setbacks such as the Coutinho sale could not only be weathered but turned around to look like opportunities. And it needs to happen again right now.

Liverpool are a different club currently. As they look to refresh Klopp’s squad this summer, they will do so without the influence and expertise of former sporting director Michael Edwards, who left a year ago, and without the help of the money and status that comes from being in the Champions League.

They are, frankly, on the back foot and if they don’t find a way to refresh and rejuvenate Klopp’s squad successfully then his very future may come into sharp focus.

To even talk of Klopp’s standing at Liverpool feels strange, given what he has achieved. Towards the end of last season, with Liverpool marauding on four fronts, I wrote that Klopp may well have constructed the club’s best ever team. There is a strong argument he had and I will have that conversation with anybody.

But the ground shifts quickly in football and at Anfield the cracks that have appeared this season go deeper than the surface. With this in mind, if Liverpool finish sixth or seventh — which is very possible — and then find themselves in a similar spot at the turn of the year, then what happens? Do they continue to drift? Or does something give?

I would imagine that, as unfeasible as it sounds, a future without Klopp would then have to be discussed and, having been privy to a small peek into his personality over these last seven and a half years, I imagine it would be the 55-year-old taking the initiative on that.

Klopp is an emotional man. It’s a strength of his because that emotion is infectious. When it’s at its best, Klopp’s team play like he lives, breathes and thinks. Emotionally, instinctively and selflessly.

Equally, can we really imagine such a man happily wading through treacle with this team? Can we imagine him eking out the days towards the end of a contract that runs for another three years? No, not really.

So this summer needs to be a good one, a progressive one, for Liverpool. It needs to feel a little like 2018. Or like 1987 when they bought John Aldridge, John Barnes and Peter Beardsley.

As we have seen in recent weeks at Anfield, Klopp’s team retain the ability to play classically when the mood takes them. They demolished Manchester United and would have beaten Arsenal had they not taken 35 minutes to get started.

They have also beaten Manchester City at home and Newcastle home and away. So the heart of all that was so recently irresistible still beats there somewhere.

But what we have also witnessed is the emergence of a new and less powerful Liverpool, one that needs that adrenaline surge from playing in front of their home fans to kick-start them into spells of ferocity that inevitably takes them places.

Without that, they have become tepid and malleable.

They have lost the ability to control and manage matches, something that has killed them away from home where they have lost eight times in the Premier League — as many as Wolves, Crystal Palace and Everton.

The good news is that Liverpool are already some way down the road in terms of their rebuild. In Salah, Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz, they have a front four that is new and emerging. I am convinced that Nunez, in particular, will be a superstar.

But elsewhere — in midfield and at the heart of the defence where Van Dijk needs to find improvement — there are deep holes to fill, new methods to find.

News this week that Liverpool are no longer in the conversation about Jude Bellingham either indicates he was too expensive or they realised they were not going to get him. Either way, if it enables Liverpool to recruit three players of quality rather than one superstar then it’s not an unwelcome development.

Liverpool’s success under Klopp has not been built on Galactico signings. It was about buying good players and watching them grow.

This summer they have their backs against the wall once more. They have managed to morph disadvantage in to opportunity before and for Klopp’s sake they really need to do it again.

Kompany is perfect for Spurs, but would he come? 

Tottenham face a dilemma as they look to appoint a new manager. A number of the players would like Mauricio Pochettino and there is a faction at the club pushing for a British name such as Graham Potter. Chairman Daniel Levy? He has a definite fancy for the Burnley boss, Vincent Kompany.

Burnley may yet have something to say about the Kompany business. Having guided the club back to the Premier League in just one season, there is talk of a bumper new deal for him at Turf Moor.

Kompany for Tottenham does make sense on some levels, though. He is a smart coach who plays attractive football and the ‘English’ box is ticked by 12 years spent in this country already.

Does that part of this really matter? I think to a degree it does. To have an understanding of English football, its media and its dressing rooms certainly helps a manager. It is not always easy to learn on the job when the job is actually about producing immediate results.

It is probably not a coincidence, for example, that Unai Emery has had an immediate impact at Aston Villa this season. His record of 1.9 points per game since replacing Steven Gerrard is as good as Erik ten Hag’s at Manchester United and Eddie Howe’s at Newcastle. Emery may have failed his Premier League apprenticeship first time round at Arsenal four years ago but that does not mean the Spaniard did not learn from it.

So yes, Kompany to Tottenham is probably worth a flutter. But would he come? Manchester City will need a new coach before too long, remember.

Arsenal move seems to be well-suited for Rice

A deal for Declan Rice to Arsenal looks increasingly possible this summer and that would suit the England international. He could stay in London and his craving for Champions League football would be satisfied.

West Ham were talking about a £150million fee a year ago but that would require an auction and it does not look as though there is going to be one. So Arsenal might be able to get the deal they want and West Ham’s valuation may have to be readjusted. 

With hindsight, it feels as though the selling club might have overplayed their hand on this one.

Foster save provides great story for documentary 

Wrexham's 3-2 win over Notts County at the top of the National League doubtless provided perfect material for the second series of the Welcome to Wrexham documentary being filmed about the club. 

You would have thought one of those cameras would have spotted that Ben Foster was two yards off his line when he saved what could well have been a decisive Notts penalty in the final minute.