Liverpool have just made perfect first move to strike as Man City face anxious wait over 115 charges

It was only 16 months ago when Liverpool were seemingly facing a rather uncertain future, both on and off the pitch.

Fenway Sports Group had opened the door to a potential sale of the club in November 2022, having created a sales deck to present to potential investors, while Jurgen Klopp’s ageing squad were in decline and in a state of transition - just five months after nearly landing an unprecedented quadruple.

FSG had seemingly come to such a conclusion having grown disillusioned with their abilities to compete financially with Man City and their Abu Dhabi billions. But with 115 charges for breach of the Premier League’s financial fair play rules hanging over the Etihad, they have seemingly grown reinvigorated and are now plotting how to go bigger and better.

At the time of that initial possible sale news spreading, the Reds were eighth in the table with a seven-point gap between themselves and the top four, and a 15-point deficit to make up on the league-leaders. They were only 13 games into the season.

Liverpool nearing new appointment as FSG handed major advantage in Xabi Alonso race

Michael Edwards speaks out on what convinced him to make Liverpool return after FSG offer

Come the end of the campaign they would at least recover enough to qualify for Europe and finish fifth, four points off the top four and Champions League qualification. Yet they were 22 points off champions Man City, their regular title foes who finished the campaign by winning the treble.

Evidently, something had to change. But even after an £150m midfield overhaul and launch of Klopp’s self-christened ‘Liverpool 2.0’ few could have foreseen the Reds remarkable transformation back into one of England’s leading sides.

Having already won the