When Liverpool brought an 18-year-old Joe Gomez to the club from Charlton Athletic in 2015, few batted an eyelid. A £3.5m price tag was all it cost, and the highly-rated starlet was theirs.

However, as the years have gone on and the Reds have altered their centre-back pairings, he has remained the one constant in that position during Jurgen Klopp's Anfield reign.

Now 25 years old, the Englishman has featured 148 times for Liverpool  and has impressed with his lightning speed and defensive instincts.

He is still not the finished article, but he has been there throughout the club’s revival under the German and grown alongside it.

What has also grown is his market value, with Transfermarkt now rating him at £22.5m. This marks an astounding 542% increase in value since making the move to Anfield seven years ago and is yet another example of FSG's fine work in the market.

With his many appearances during this period, he has a suitably impressive trophy cabinet to go with it. He is a Premier League champion, a Champions League winner, featured in both their FA Cup and Carabao Cup triumphs last season and has also lifted the UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup and Community Shield.

He has won it all at Liverpool, and when the context of his price tag is taken into account, it makes his acquisition all the more intelligent.

Even despite their patchy form to start off this season, with his own defensive credentials called into question, he has averaged a SofaScore rating of 7.06 whilst averaging 1.8 interceptions, 1.6 tackles and 1.2 clearances per game. That ranks him among the top three players at Anfield for each metric.

Klopp has also been quite vocal in his admiration for the defender, about whom he claimed in 2020: “He is a sensational footballer, which is good. He has outstanding speed, which helps us a lot to keep our last line high; he is a really good challenger; good in one-on-one situations; football-wise, I said already, good.

“The package is really nice. It was always clear in the moment he starts playing and can get rhythm again, everything will be fine – and that’s how it is.”

Liverpool have struck gold once again with Gomez, who has made his initial transfer outlay from 2015 look like chickenfeed considering what he has achieved since.