The man behind the concept of 'Moneyball' - which has underpinned much of Liverpool's transfer strategy under owners Fenway Sports Group - says the Reds may have already unearthed their next transfer bargain.
Billy Beane, the former General Manager and current minority owner of the Oakland Athletics, developed a stats-based approach to recruiting players which achieved some remarkable results for the unheralded Oakland A's in the early 2000s.
He is most famously the subject of the 2003 New York Times Bestselling book about baseball economics entitled 'Moneyball', which was later turned into a film starring Brad Pitt as Beane.
As well as continuing his association with the A's, the 58-year-old also maintains an interest in football as a minority owner of Championship side Barnsley.
As a friend, associate and baseball rival of John W Henry and his Boston Red Sox, Beane has kept a close eye on Liverpool's transfer dealings under FSG's ownership.
And while citing Mohamed Salah (£36.7million from Roma) and Virgil van Dijk (£75million from Southampton ) as perfect examples of players who have seen their values increase during their time at Anfield, Beane has picked out an unheralded Reds youngster as a fine example of how the new Premier League champions' approach can work.
"Last year, Liverpool picked up a young man who was playing in Eredivisie as a 15 or 16-year-old, Sepp van den Berg (a £1.3million arrival from PEC Zwolle)," Beane told the Liverpool Echo.
"To me, that transaction was fascinating because everyone is looking for young players, and just because somebody is young doesn’t mean that they are going to be a great player.
"What is interesting is when you take a 15 or 16-year-old - in the States, he would be in his second year of high school - and if he is playing at the average Eredivisie level and he is 15 or 16, that to me is the real exploitation of data.
"We’ll see how it turns out, but there was a lot of evidence that it was an incredibly shrewd, cost-effective risk to take on a guy that you had data on at a very young age."
Van den Berg is yet to make a Premier League appearance for the Reds, but has played four times in cup competitions.
Listen to the full Billy Beane interview on the Liverpool Echo's Blood Red podcast
