There is a line Arne Slot has apparently been rolling out with some regularity at his press conferences, and it tells you everything you need to know about how Liverpool view the Alexander Isak situation. 'Alexander Isak has signed for six years, not six months.' Short, sharp, and to the point. The kind of thing you say when you want a conversation to stop.

And honestly? That framing matters. It is easy to get caught up in the short-term noise around a big signing — the early struggles, the adaptation period, the inevitable comparisons and questions — and lose sight of the bigger picture. Slot clearly has not lost sight of anything.

Isak arrived at Liverpool carrying enormous expectation, and expectation is a weight that not every player wears comfortably. The Premier League has a habit of humbling those who look unstoppable elsewhere, and there were moments last season when the questions began to stack up. But Slot was never wavering, and now heading into his second campaign at the club, the conditions look ripe for Isak to make those questions look very silly indeed.