Yet the reality remains that should Mario Gotze seal a reunion with Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, he will arrive at Anfield with plenty to prove.

Chiefly, that a career which has stagnated at Bayern Munich has merely hit a bump in the road. Also, that he retains the ambition and drive to rescale the heights which came so naturally to him as the chest trap and volley that brought Germany their prize in the Maracana two summers ago highlighted.

Klopp’s interest in Gotze is logical.

He was, after all, the coach who nurtured the teenager through the ranks at Borussia Dortmund, helping him take steps towards becoming the talent no less a judge than Franz Beckenbauer claimed could be Germany’s answer to Lionel Messi.

He is the manager who best summed up the intense feeling of loss when informed that Gotze would be leaving him to join Bayern Munich at the end of the 2013 season.