"There is no ceiling for Newcastle. Congratulations. Some other clubs have ceilings. We cannot act like them. It is not possible."
How times change.
Those were the words of then Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp in October 2022.
Less than three years later, his successor Arne Slot has just overseen the biggest spend by a club in a transfer window.
And they have taken Newcastle's prize asset Alexander Isak for a British record £125m fee as part of their £415m summer outlay.
Newcastle, it turns out, were ultimately the ones with the ceiling.