Liverpool's nigh-exestential quest for title number 19 has partly been halted by their succession of number 19s.
Have a look at this illustrious list of players who have worn the number in the Premier League era, courtesy of the excellent LFCHistory.net: Steven Caulker, Javier Manquillo, Stewart Downing, Ryan Babel, Fernando Morientes, Pegguy Arphexad, Brad Friedel, Mark Kennedy and Torben Piechnik.
Jurgen Klopp will hope that Sadio Mane, signed today for £30 million, will break this remarkable streak of mediocrity:
Sadio Mane's number is, of course, t̶w̶e̶n̶t̶y̶-̶n̶i̶n̶e̶ 1⃣9⃣! pic.twitter.com/G2FvSUUp8z
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) June 28, 2016
It continues Liverpool's remarkable determination to fund Southampton, and means that Liverpool have now signed all of the Southampton players who have scored against them at Anfield since the Saints' promotion in 2012: Dejan Lovren, Nathaniel Clyne and now Mane, in addition to the previous signings of Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert.
Liverpool have turned to Mane having been turned down by Mario Gotze, who would appear to favour his spot on Bayern Munich's bench than submit himself to another regime of gegenpressing.
Reds fans should, however, be happy about the signing of Mane, as it is proof that Jurgen Klopp is in total control of transfers, with player signings no longer the preserve of the shadowy/inept Transfer Committee. In addition to Mane's shirt number meaning he doesn't have much to live up to, he is the first Senagalese player signed by the club since El-Hadji Diouf. Not exactly a high bar.
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