Liverpool have had elite strikers in the Premier League era. Fernando Torres did devastating damage in red. Luis Suarez went beyond that and bent games to his will. Steven Gerrard played with both and rates them accordingly. But when the conversation turns to missed chances, he goes somewhere else. He goes back to Nicolas Anelka.

This is not nostalgia for its own sake. It is a hard football point. Liverpool had Anelka in the building in 2002, saw what he could do, then decided against keeping him. They chose El Hadji Diouf instead. One decision aged well, the other aged terribly. That is the reality.

During his loan spell from Paris Saint-Germain, Anelka gave Liverpool exactly what top forwards are supposed to give, movement, control, threat and a sense that something serious might happen when the ball reached him. The numbers, five goals in 22 appearances, do not scream greatness. The performances told a different story. Anyone watching closely could see the level.

Gerrard has never hidden what he thought. Speaking on the Open Goal Podcast, he said: “It’s not the decision I would’ve made, I’d have took Anelka all day long,”

“I loved Anelka, Anelka was class. His movement, his touch, he had a swagger. He’d done it at Arsenal, played at Madrid, he was in the French national team.”

That is a player’s assessment, and those tend to matter. Dressing rooms know quality faster than boardrooms do. Gerrard is blunt about why Liverpool went the other way. “And, listen, with all due respect, Diouf had a fantastic World Cup, he’d had a really good World Cup. So you could understand why Liverpool maybe thought there was more in that in terms of buy, maybe sell further down the line.

“Anelka had a little bit of baggage, if you like, with him. But if you’re talking about El Hadji Diouf and Nicolas Anelka, come on. Playing with him, he was just on it.”

That last line says plenty. Liverpool gambled on tournament glow instead of proven class. Clubs do this more often than they should. They get seduced by short-term form, marketability, resale logic, narrative. The obvious footballer gets ignored.