Diego Simeone turned his nose up and raced down the tunnel.
After being beaten by Liverpool on his own turf, the Atletico Madrid boss had no interest in shaking hands at the Wanda Metropolitano in October.
But should FSG extend another kind of invitation to him when Jurgen Klopp eventually leaves the club?
On the face of it, Simeone managing the Reds is a long shot.
Bookies certainly hold that view.
For a start, the reality of Steven Gerrard is beginning to match the romance of a return.
Now in the Aston Villa dugout, he has an opportunity to test himself in the Premier League and strengthen his case for Anfield after success at Rangers.
Gerrard remains favourite to take the mantle from Klopp, with current Liverpool assistant boss Pepijn Lijnders second in the betting.
Xabi Alonso - taking promising steps into management in the Real Sociedad system - comes next.
Julian Nagelsmann is also lurking in the frame along with Merseyside resident Rafa Benitez.
Only then do we reach Simeone as a distant 20/1 chance.
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There are a handful of hurdles that explain why.
He does not speak much English. His dabbling with dark arts - let's be frank, outright s**thousery - does not smack entirely of the 'Liverpool way'. Him and the Reds would both have to put aside recent encounters that threatened to spill over with spikiness.
It is fair to say he is more foe than friend at first glance.
Yet things are not always what they seem in football.
Simeone has admitted he would be open to a future spell in England.
Five summers ago, he said: "I consider myself a young coach. So I feel that it is possible. Many of the leagues provide some great challenges. Certainly, the English league, the Italian league are attractive for me."
There were even suggestions - in 2014 - that he was employing a private tutor for a crash course in English ahead of a potential move to Manchester United which never materialised.
While a full grasp of the language from the outset would be beneficial, Marcelo Bielsa has shown it is not essential and there are ways around it.
Rafa Benitez soon got his English up to speed when he came to Liverpool after some initial issues.
And Kieran Trippier has done very well for Simeone at Atletico.
The England international could not be clearer on how effectively the boss can communicate: “There is no better person to work under. He is so passionate. I am just so excited to learn off him and work with him. In training, when somebody makes a tackle or somebody makes a mistake you see the passion – you need to be there. He’s amazing."
In addition, Simeone's contract with Atleti expires in 2024.
Which just happens to be the year Klopp is set to depart.
Gerrard is clearly positioning himself for a switch to Liverpool at some stage.
But he has signed a three-and-a-half year deal with Villa that takes him to 2025.
Such agreements are not set in stone as his early Rangers exit shows.
However, it is difficult to envisage how a mere two full seasons at Villa Park could totally prepare him for the Liverpool job by 2024.
Will his tactical plan at Villa develop enough by then to prove he can consistently dominate games? Will he have been given the resources to demonstrate ability in the transfer market? Will there be European adventures to show he can compete beyond these shores?
Gerrard's career is very much on the right trajectory, but time may be against him to directly succeed Klopp.
There is also the pattern of recruitment at Liverpool to consider.
More specifically, the two most successful managers in the modern Anfield era.
Benitez had broken the stranglehold of Barcelona and Real Madrid in La Liga ahead of his arrival, muscling in to win two titles with Valencia.
He could also point to a UEFA Cup triumph and some fine performances in the Champions League.
Those included superb displays against the Reds in 2002, as Valencia topped both group phases and made it to the quarter-finals.
Likewise, Klopp was already a serial winner domestically and had shown immense potential in Europe.
His twin titles with Dortmund remain the only break in a run of Bundesliga dominance from Bayern Munich stretching back to 2010.
And his men were narrowly defeated in the 2013 Champions League final, losing 2-1 to Bayern after a late Wembley winner.
Simeone has a track record that is arguably even more impressive.
Not only has he twice seen off Barca and Madrid to win La Liga - but he has done so in the days of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, competing with some of the best sides the game has ever seen.
He won the Europa League on two occasions, and came agonisingly close in a pair of Champions League final defeats to Real.
Atleti have never finished outside the top three in Spain since Simeone's first full campaign in charge.
While there may be reservations over his style of play, it has adapted and evolved as the seasons have gone on.
He has delivered healthy goal returns from attacking stars as varied as Antoine Griezmann, Radamel Falcao and Diego Costa.
There is counter-pressing ability as well as defensive nous at the heart of his Atletico sides.
And he has shown he can rebuild and react to the setback of losing players, demonstrated by his most recent La Liga triumph which came after the departure of Thomas Partey early in the campaign plus Rodri, Griezmann and Lucas Hernandez the previous season.
Despite all that, it is understandable if many Liverpool fans bristle at the thought of Simeone and the perception of what he represents.
But when the glittering Klopp reign ends, the club may need a clean break.
It will be tempting to hunt for a continuity candidate.
Lijnders may be ideal. Or an experienced backroom team might be constructed around the emerging figure of Gerrard.
Yet there would be big pressure on someone tasked with maintaining an existing project, rather than the breathing room afforded by forging something fresh.
With the potential rise of Saudi-backed Newcastle and the resurfacing of other rivals, FSG will have to sharpen Liverpool's edge.
Simeone has the tools to do that.
And while neither may admit it, perhaps he and Klopp are more similar than it seems.
The stature, dynamism, relentlessness and collectivist spirit are evident in both of them even if expressed in different ways.
Just ask Luis Suarez.
He has thrived under Simeone over the last two campaigns.
And the ex-Red recently paid his manager a hugely significant compliment, when he said: "The most important thing at Atletico is that nobody here thinks he's better than any other player. Every single player here has confidence in every other player. And that is Cholo [Simeone's nickname]."
In a further comparison to Klopp, Simeone takes immense pride in developing talent.
Writing for a Guardian piece, he said in 2019: "As a coach, the greatest passion you can have is for improving players. Of course, becoming champions is something we all want, but I think that the best “championship” for a manager is to see players like Koke, Lucas Hernandez, Angel Correa – lads who have come up from all the way down in the lower divisions – become professionals of a high standard."
The Argentine has been described as the Premier League's "missing ingredient".
If he was picked to provide a new flavour at Manchester United or Newcastle, it would surely raise alarm at Liverpool, City and Chelsea.
Bringing him to Anfield is one way to stop that threat.
Atletico's chief executive Miguel Angel Gil recently questioned whether Simeone would prosper in England.
"If he went to manage in the Premier League, it wouldn't work," Gil explained. "It isn't just a question of language; it's the characteristics of how he manages. It's the emotional way he proceeds. The demands he puts on players. You just couldn't do that there."
Don't those words sound a little reminiscent of the man currently in the Liverpool hotseat?
FSG will be in no rush to decide on Klopp's successor just yet.
And it is still a possibility that the German extends his stay at Anfield beyond 2024.
But when the time finally comes, John Henry should not rule out shocking the football world by shaking hands with the enemy.
