Arsenal were reported to have £45 million to spend in the summer.

In the end, they spent almost £100 million more than that.

In the process they smashed their club transfer record to sign Nicolas Pepe, splashing £72 million on the Ivorian.

The winger scored 22 Ligue 1 goals last season and was reportedly linked with a host of big European clubs.

One of the clubs he was tentatively linked with was Liverpool.

However, the European champions had a very quiet transfer window settling for the signings of 17-year-old Sepp van den Berg, 18-year-old Harvey Elliot and back-up goalkeeper Adrian.

So why didn’t they make a move for Pepe?

Well, Goal have produced a report explaining ‘Why Arsenal's record signing was never a transfer target for Klopp.’

Reports in France were suggesting during the summer that Liverpool were in for Pepe but that only prompted the club's sporting director, Michael Edwards, to telephone Christophe Galtier, the manager of Lille, to reassure him that wasn’t the case.

That was because Klopp had no intention of breaking up his front-three of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.

The trio are rarely rotated and have a rather remarkable injury record.

But at the end of the day, Klopp and Liverpool knew that Pepe wouldn’t be in a position to become first choice this season.

It says a lot that Arsenal’s record signing wasn’t even considered by Liverpool because they knew he wouldn’t get in.

The same went for Christian Pulisic and Timo Werner.

Both were on Liverpool’s radar but the Reds knew they wouldn’t be playing first-team football and, therefore, decided against spending a large fee for a quality player to sit on the bench.

Of course, by not signing them, it means they’re free to join a rival - which is what has happened in the case of Pepe and Pulisic.

That may come back to haunt them come Saturday when Pepe and Arsenal come to Anfield…