The question of how to divide international television rights and just what's fair is, at the end of the day, hugely complex. It touches on dozens of other issues that effect league parity and directly mirrors a much older debate about the sharing of gate revenue. There's greed and self-preservation behind every corner, and it's all set against the backdrop of a thoroughly broken system that nobody seems especially interested in fixing in any meaningful way.

A funny thing happens when the transfer window opens. Rumours swirl; players are leaving and others arriving. People are certain of it because all the papers say so; all the people with inside knowledge—be it actual or simply claimed—say so. And the world turns into an echo chamber.

Or at least the part of the world that is whatever club one follows' corner of it does.

Those who follow Liverpool are hardly a monolithic block.