It's been the summer of preparation for Liverpool as the sweeping alterations to an ever-changing Anfield have taken shape.
The club's task in recent months has been clear; to implement and execute the strategy that will modernise one of the most famous football stadiums on the planet.
The task of making the contemporary upgrades adhesive to a venue that is so steeped in tradition has been no easy feat for the decision-makers at the top of the chain.
Moving stadiums has simply never been an option for club owners Fenway Sports Group, so the revenue streams that are created from a bigger attendance was accepted as having to come from inside Anfield itself long ago.
Expansion rather than relocation has always been at the top of the agenda for FSG as a result.
But with one of the most famous football grounds situated at the heart of a residential area, it's a delicate tightrope that Liverpool have had to walk with regards to the wider local community they serve in L4.
It's five years next month since the club unveiled the Main Stand to the biggest live attendance since 1973.
A total of 53,075 packed themselves into the ground to watch the Reds tear then-champions Leicester apart, as Jurgen Klopp's side won 4-1 on the day.
Since then, the attention has shifted towards the Anfield Road end, with the green light being given to increase the 54,000 capacity by a further 7,000 earlier this summer.
The project was initially placed on a 12-month pause on April 27 2020 as the world continued to adapt and adjust to the new COVID-19 reality, before the plans were finally given the go-ahead in June.
"A huge milestone," was how managing director Andy Hughes put it at the time following the granting of planning permission by a Liverpool City Council committee.
"The short to medium-term is to get Anfield Road done," says one senior source. "That'll take us up to 61,000 and it allows us to start balancing the stadium out.
"If you look across the Sir Kenny Stand, Anfield Road and the Main Stand, the Kop will look smaller, ironically, alongside everything else.
"There is a bit of a challenge around the fact we're in a community and a residential area which we take great pride in.
"It's part of the character for what a classic English stadium is from the Victorian era to today. We're not different from a lot of other football clubs in that regard.
"Right now the focus is on getting Anfield Road right, adding that capacity, which will undoubtedly add more atmosphere to the stadium and 61,000 is about right."
Alongside the planning permission for a bigger, fuller stadium comes the introduction of rail seats at the ground.
Close to 8,000 will be brought in before the new Premier League season reaches Anfield when Burnley visit on August 21, with around 1,800 in place on the Kop for the friendlies with Athletic Club and Osasuna on Sunday and Monday.
The ECHO was given an exclusive look before Sunday's game as the finishing touches were being put to the seating which aims to create safer standing for moments like goal celebrations during a game.
The remaining 6,000 will be stationed in the lower tier of an Anfield Road with Liverpool one of five Premier League clubs to run the trial following a recommendation from the Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA).
The stadium itself remains an all-seater but those who used the rail seats at the weekend were positive in their findings.
"The bars don’t get in the way when you’re seated, and it makes standing up a lot more comfortable as you can lean on the bar in front," said one fan who was in the Kop for Sunday's 1-1 draw with Athletic.
One source says: "The rail seating experiment is going to be interesting and I think that ultimately, five or six years down the line, the team will have completed Anfield Road by then.
"But then you are constantly starting to look at renovations as well.
"The next thing might be about what can be done with the Sir Kenny Stand. It's very much [about] looking at not adding extra attendance capabilities but you start to invest capital in modernising the facilities."
But while the early indications are positive ones for the rail seating, Liverpool's implementation of Near Field Communication in their new ticket system drew plenty of criticism over the weekend.
The technology works through smartphones in the same way card payments and online boarding passes are used on both Apple and Android devices.
"It's essentially something we've been looking at for a couple of years now and we were going to introduce it in a phased approach over 18 months to two years, but the pandemic has forced our hand a little bit," Liverpool's vice president of ticketing, Phil Dutton, told the ECHO last week.
"We do recognise that some of our perhaps older supporters might struggle with it, so we have offered those supporters the option of a card with their photograph on it.
"We will offer as much support as we possibly can, so on a match-day, we'll have a number of fan-support stewards and we're opening up a number of new facilities to deal with match-day queries for the first three or four games."
Liverpool anticipated teething problems with the system, which was one of a few reasons why the Reds played back-to-back games on Sunday and Monday, to help iron out any issues before the real action begins.
The line of supporters that snaked around Walton Breck Road before kick-off was less than ideal, however, as many fans found their first visit to Anfield in close to 18 months to be a sadly frustrating one.
Kick-off was delayed on Sunday by half an hour as large queues were formed and fans struggled to get anywhere near their seats in time for the initial 4pm start.
"Today's thrill of returning to Anfield turned sour for thousands of Liverpool supporters," posted influential fan-group Spirit of Shankly after the game.
"The club's statement that delays were due to 'access processes' and 'matchday operations' will do little to assuage fans' grievances.
"Those fans who did not get in on time, or at all, should be refunded the price of their ticket at the very least."
On Monday afternoon Liverpool implored supporters to get to there as early as possible for the game with Osasuna, saying: "Some issues were identified while fans were entering the stadium yesterday and following a full review and debrief of the process, improvements and key learnings have been made ahead of tonight’s match."
One of the problems was said to be supporters having multiple tickets on the same phone and match-goers were told that those entering with children before 6pm would receive a free soft drink as a 'thank you' for their help.
"We are strongly encouraging families and groups, where possible, to print their e-tickets off at home, so phones do not have to be passed back and forth to get groups through the same turnstiles, this will speed up the entry process," continued the statement.
Stewards were asked to get to the ground four hours before kick-off on Monday as the club desperately tried to avoid a repeat of some of the scenes that confronted them during Sunday's efforts to get 40,000 in the ground.
The execution was again far from perfect, though, with kick-off being delayed by 15 minutes for the 3-1 win against Osasuna.
Some have suggested the incentives continue going forward while others have spoken of the need to stagger entrance times for certain sections of the stadium in the same way the club did during the games in December last year.
"I am used to it here in America," says former Liverpool CEO, Peter Moore prior to the weekend's games. "You just flash your phone when you go through.
"Everything you do is on your phone. You don't get involved in cash or paper or anything. God forbid you lose your phone!
"But this is the future and the club wants everyone to come in efficiently and not waste time at the turnstiles.
"One of the challenges the club still has is everyone wants to get in there with 20 minutes to go, so you still have this operational challenge just before kick-off of getting everyone into their seats.
"God love them, they want to be in the Arkles (pub) or the Twelfth Man and then get to their seat at 2.50pm.
"That's great if it's not 30,000 of them wanting to do that, which at times can happen as a number coming through the turnstiles in the last 25 minutes operationally.
"It's just about trying to give technology a chance to smooth that."
"There are a lot of different reasons why we are using this and we do acknowledge that some people may be concerned and we are absolutely here to support people over this," added VP of ticketing, Mr Dutton.
"There are obviously some people who don't like it and won't want to use it but we are here to support those people.
"This is not about stopping people going to the game, this is just about taking us to the next stage of how people access the stadium and use those tickets."
The plans for Anfield's "next stage" are being introduced at some pace as Liverpool plan to re-emerge from an 18-month wilderness, but the winds of change are not arriving without bringing some turbulence, it seems.
