Liverpool had to endure some bleak times before Jurgen Klopp. Transfer business in particular was littered with flops under Brendan Rodgers, as the manager and the "committee" struggled for power.
Of course, it wasn't all bad. In 2013/14, Rodgers' penultimate full season, Liverpool produced its most credible Premier League title challenge in years, in a thrilling campaign spearheaded by the brilliance of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge .
But Suarez left and things fell apart at Anfield . The replacements for the Uruguayan were especially damning, with Rickie Lambert and Mario Balotelli woefully ill-equipped to bridge the gap.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But looking back, Rodgers might have had better luck showing some faith in one of the players already at the club.
Iago Aspas did not get much by way of opportunities during 2013/14, his one campaign with Liverpool. He had a promising pre-season after arriving from Celta Vigo, but the incredible form of Suarez and Sturridge kept him firmly out of the side.
Such was Rodgers' desperation on that fateful day against Chelsea , Aspas did eventually get thrown into the action, his first appearance in seven games (that being a one-minute cameo against Manchester United in a 3-0 win). We all know what happened next.
That corner sealed his fate at Liverpool, at least in the eyes of Rodgers. Despite losing Suarez, Aspas was allowed to leave on loan to Sevilla that summer, with an obligation to buy included in the deal.
He didn't set the world alight there either. In 2015, months before Klopp would replace Rodgers at Liverpool, Sevilla sold Aspas back to Celta Vigo on the very same day his loan became permanent.
Aspas was already a hero at Celta upon his return. In fact, he had cemented himself as a figure of folklore within his first two professional appearances, scoring a brace off the bench in 2009 to effectively secure the club's future by avoiding relegation from the Segunda Division, Spain's second tier.
After that, he spearheaded a return to La Liga, and helped keep Celta there before his ill-fated Liverpool move. So it was an inevitably emotional homecoming, but nobody would have predicted the fairytale that has ensued.
Arguably, Aspas was already a club legend before his second spell. Now, nine years on from his return, he indisputably stands alone as the greatest player in the history of Celta Vigo.
He was recently celebrated at Balaidos for his 500th game for the club . In that time, he has netted 208 goals — 132 goals clear of Celta's second-highest all-time scorer.
Aspas is 37 now, but continues to deliver at the highest level. He has four goals and two assists in nine La Liga outings so far this season, goals that took him past Ferenc Puskas and Artiz Aduriz and into 19th place in the list of the league's all-time top scorers.
A bastion of consistency, he is one of just eight players to notch at least 11 La Liga goals in eight successive seasons. He is keeping great company: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez, David Villa, Hugo Sanchez, Alfredo di Stefano and Pahino.
And many of these goals have been of great significance, too. He has had to repeat his rescue act numerous times, maintaining Celta Vigo's top-flight status with almost cartoonishly reliable heroism.
There can be little doubt that finding his way back to Celta was the best thing for Aspas, who has had the kind of career most would give anything to experience. But you also can't help but wonder what might have been if he had still been at Liverpool when Klopp arrived in October 2015.
Even in his Anfield days, Aspas was an eager worker. Klopp helped many players become the best version of themselves, and would have seen plenty to value in a high-pressing terrier of a forward.
With the clinical streak he developed later (in the five years up to May 2022, only Son Heung-min and Erling Haaland outperformed their expected goals by a greater margin than Aspas in all of Europe's top five leagues), the Spaniard could have been a menace under Klopp. We'll simply never know.
But one thing we do know is that English football remebering Aspas for his corner is a gross injustice. We are talking about a legitimate giant of La Liga, matched only by a handful of other active players — he may have flopped at Liverpool, but he is a legend of the game.
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