Of the several soundbites from Jurgen Klopp's first press conference as Liverpool boss, there is one that has been re-aired more than most.
"Please give us time to do the work, but when I sit here in four years I think we may have one title," Klopp said of his impending future at Anfield.
"If not maybe [I'll win] the next one in Switzerland."
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At times, it has looked as though that premonition was hopelessly misguided. Other junctures have made it appear astute.
But ask Klopp about that phrase today and he will be insistent; the Liverpool manager was not talking about domestic league titles.
The word 'titles', he will say, was said to encompass all trophies. A simple case of semantics from someone not speaking in his native tongue.
"I didn't say the league, at all," he said last year of that statement back on October 8, 2015.
"I said we will win..If I am still here, we probably have won something. We did that already, so..."
At the time, many took the words as somewhere between a cocksure claim and an unshakeable belief in what he could achieve, depending on your particular allegiance.
To the man himself, he was merely stating that he would have had to have brought success to the club to remain in charge four years later.
The answer wasn't universally welcomed at the time, with former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel branding the assertion as a mistake.
"[Is that Klopp's] First mistake..??" he tweeted. "Others have made the same promise! #ItsNotThatEasyMrKlopp".
By the time Klopp had reached his four-year anniversary at Liverpool, however, he was a Champions League winner.
The UEFA Super Cup had also been safely stowed away and the FIFA Club World Cup was around two months away from being added to Anfield's trophy cabinet for the first time.
And before the Reds boss could mark his fifth year as Liverpool boss, a new contract to keep him at Anfield until 2024 had been signed and the Premier League title had been lifted.
Now into his sixth year, Klopp's Liverpool are once again vying for the Premier League title as Manchester United try to win their first trophy in four years. It's not that easy, after all.
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If history and hindsight take a dim view of Schmeichel's statement, they are much kinder to the foresight of fellow Man United great Sir Alex Ferguson, who admitted he was concerned about the prospect of Klopp being a success at Liverpool.
The two managerial greats share a mutual respect and the United legend conceded the arrival of Klopp could be the catalyst for the return to the glory days down the M62.
Speaking at the time of Klopp's move, Ferguson said: "Well it’s a good appointment. I admire him.
"I know Jurgen pretty well through our meetings at [FIFA] coaches’ classes in Geneva.
“He's a strong personality, very strong, very stubborn, determined and his performances, and his career at Dortmund was a stellar rise to the top and I think he’ll do very well.
“I don’t like saying that, being Liverpool, because I’m worried about it but, no, he’ll do well.”
It will never be denied that Ferguson knew what he was talking about. Schmeichel, perhaps less so.
A version of this piece was first published in October 2020
