This week, Brendan Rodgers asked Liverpool to restore the old 'This is Anfield' sign that adorned the stadium's tunnel at the time of the club's greatest triumphs, when European Cups were won in daring fashion and Liverpool became a byword for attractive football.
It was a symbolic gesture, a sign that Rodgers is intent on restoring a brand of football that appeals to the club's grand history. Early Doors is pretty sure he didn't whack it up himself, despite being pictured with a hammer in hand, but it was quite a statement of intent from the man prised out of Swansea this summer.
It was probably no coincidence, then, that as Rodgers was overseeing restoration work in the tunnel, in Anfield's front office club officials were reportedly exploring how best to dispose of Andy Carroll.
With Rodgers admitting publicly he may loan out a striker who cost £35 million, and reports on Wednesday strongly linking Carroll with a move to Sam Allardyce's West Ham, it appears the big striker's departure is becoming inevitable. A parting of the ways, however temporary, would probably benefit both parties.
With that luxuriant mane of his, Carroll looks like the kind of man who should be allowed to run free, careering round a field to his heart's content, bashing into people and generally wreaking havoc. His attributes allow him to cause chaos, a strategy that seems ill at ease with Rodgers's focus on control.
Liverpool's new boss demonstrated pretty vividly at Swansea he is a disciple of the of tiki-taka, and it would be fair to assume he will implement a similar brand of football now in place at Anfield. ED is unsure where he will find his Scouse Xavi having been parted with the Wandsworth Xavi - Leon Britton - but the emphasis will be on short, metronomic passing and retaining possession, with an injection of pace and movement in the final third.
As part of what has been a highly effective PR campaign in the early days of the new man's reign - one that has supporters firmly behind a man who is a refreshing change from the abrasive Kenny Dalglish - Liverpool's players have been effusive in their praise of the new methods introduced.
Take this gushing recommendation from Jonjo Shelvey as he signed a new deal on Tuesday: "I think [Rodgers is] great. With all the passing drills he's doing, he's encouraging us to play all the time which is nice for a football player. Instead of doing a lot of long-distance running and things like that in pre-season, everything has been with a ball, which is more enjoyable.
"Everyone is enjoying training and looking forward to coming in. Everyone is buzzing because he likes to play football. That's what people want to do and what fans want to see - nice, attractive football. Hopefully we can bring that to Anfield this year."
ED struggles to see how Carroll can be a part of this brave new world, which in fact, with its pass-and-move sensibilities, clearly appeals to Liverpool's historic reputation for fluid football. To be honest, he has looked a bit of a misfit ever since arriving at the club.
It appeared in January 2011 as though Carroll had been purchased in a painting-by-numbers manner. As though Liverpool crunched the numbers and found that with Stewart Downing seemingly recruited on the strength of the number of chances he created from wide positions, and Charlie Adam for his set-piece prowess, installing a big man at the forefront of the attack would bring instant and obvious reward.
Yet two plus two did not equal four, let alone 35 million. And the departure of Kenny Dalglish at the end of last season signalled the end of Carroll's possible value to a club now intent on pulling in a very different direction.
In the space of 18 months, one of the most expensive players of all time has become an anachronism at his own club. A throwback to the old English centre-forward when Rodgers embodies a more progressive, continental approach. He has stayed the same, but his world has changed around him.
The fact that he looked half decent playing for Roy Hodgson at Euro 2012 will surely only have confirmed in the minds of some Liverpool supporters that Carroll does not fit the club's ethos, which they felt was so abjectly sacrificed by England's new manager during his brief time at Anfield.
Carroll just doesn't fit the profile Rodgers and Liverpool need at present. Luis Suarez does, and so does Fabio Borini, who appears poised to return to English football after one season in Serie A with Roma.
A move to Allardyce's West Ham, where Carroll can reunite with former Newcastle colleague Kevin Nolan, and have an attack built around him by the man who made Kevin Davies a Premier League player of some repute, looks a neat fit to ED. It would certainly afford Carroll the chance to get some regular first-team football at a time when a good run of form could see him become his country's established number nine.
As Rodgers said this week: "There are many things to going on loan. Is it going to be beneficial for the club? That's the most important thing. Sometimes a player going out on loan - in general, not just Andy - can benefit the club in the long term. It gets them game experience and they come back a better player, a more confident one. Certainly more so than if they've been sitting on the bench for the majority of the season."
But even if Carroll does enjoy a productive loan spell away from the club, it appears desperately unlikely he has any kind of long-term future at Liverpool. Rodgers has begun the job of rebuilding the club from the inside out and the striker's face doesn't fit. For Carroll, the writing is on the wall.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "It's not something I'm proud of. For a while we did this almost every week. We made a fair bit of money. We could make deals with the opposing captain about, for example, betting on the first throw, the first corner, who started with the ball, a yellow card or a penalty. Those were the sorts of thing we had influence over. I know it happened at other clubs as well. We footballers live in a bubble. It was part of the lifestyle and the excitement. Whatever we could bet on, we bet on." - Former Southampton defender Claus Lundekvam sensationally alleges systematic spot-fixing took place in the Premier League during his time in England.
FOREIGN VIEW: "As we understand it, an aggression towards a coach deserves punishment. This decision does not mean the aggressor is innocent, but leads them to believe that they can continue to attack people without fear of punishment. It's a bad example for Spanish football that this aggression is going unpunished." - Barcelona predictably get annoyed by the news that Jose Mourinho's ban for poking Tito Vilanova in the eye last year has been wiped out as part of an amnesty.
COMING UP: The John Terry trial continues and Jim White files his latest update.