After the dark final days of the Rafa Benitez reign, and most notably the acquisition of Milan Jovanovic, it is refreshing to see Liverpool take a lead in the transfer market once again, with the club having agreed a deal worth £20 million for Sunderland's Jordan Henderson.
He will not be the last. Stewart Downing and Charlie Adam could follow in what is already a packed midfield, while Newcastle left-back Jose Enrique and Ipswich Town's boy wonder Connor Wickham are also on the wanted list ahead of what is expected to be a busy summer for the accountants at Anfield.
It is quite the statement of intent from manager Kenny Dalglish, director of football strategy Damien Comolli and owner John Henry, and a palpable improvement on the muddled policies overseen by Benitez and Roy Hodgson as they were forced to work under the oppressive economic conditions created by the hated Tom Hicks and George Gillett - just witness the curious case of Alberto Aquilani.
However, ED cannot help but feel that this fresh approach is not without some apparent flaws.
While investing in domestic talent should always be applauded, and it can only benefit England if Henderson enjoys regular football at Anfield, the quoted price seems remarkably high for a player with one international cap, and that a humbling experience at the hands of France.
Though undoubtedly a player of real talent and potential, Henderson was also booed by Sunderland supporters at one point last season as his form suffered with that of the club as they plummeted down the table. It is fair to say he still has room for improvement; perhaps Anfield will be the stage that allows him to flourish.
Reservations over Henderson's price are tempered somewhat by the fact Liverpool have successfully managed to value David Ngog at £7m in the part exchange deal, taking the sting out of the initial outlay somewhat, but that does not disguise the fact that the overall value of the deal is still eye-watering.
Henderson's is not an isolated case. Reported fees of £8m for Adam and £9m for Enrique feel a touch high, while the ultimate example is of course the £35m paid for Andy Carroll in January. Though Liverpool say his price was always going to fall in line with that paid by Chelsea for Fernando Torres, it was still a ludicrous amount to pay for a player with six decent months in the top flight and one international cap.
In fact, it made Carroll the most expensive British player of all time and the eighth costliest in the history of the game. Even taking inflation into account, something Liverpool supporters love to do when feverishly debating net spend, that is a crazy price.
Liverpool's recent approach is all the more puzzling to ED because the new owners were said to buy into Moneyball - a policy that is supposed to eschew overly-elaborate spending in order to find value where others have missed it, and base recruitment on empirical values, rather than the more instinctive recruitment model embodied by the likes of Harry Redknapp.
In January, following the appointment of Comolli, The Guardian predicted "Liverpool's cut-price revolution". Comolli was an acolyte of Billy Beane, the man who introduced a statistics-based approach at the Oakland As, and was supposed to be able to identify players who were undervalued judging by the market rate.
Notably, Henry said after completing his takeover of the club last Autumn: "When we spend a dollar, it has to be wisely. We have work to do and must invest in this club to improve it on the field."
While that specific philosophy and the £20m valuation of Henderson may not necessarily be mutually exclusive - for example, Comolli and Dalglish may feel he will be worth £40m in three years' time - what is certain is that Liverpool have paid over the odds for a player of his current ability.
Arsene Wenger, unsurprisingly given his reputation for prudence, identified well over a decade ago that British players commanded fees well above the market rate. At present, Liverpool appear happy to pay that premium, which ostensibly sits ill at ease with what are supposed to be their guiding principles.
A cursory glance around Europe only underlines this suspicion. Giuseppe Rossi, a leading light of La Liga who scored 32 goals in all competitions for Villarreal last season and is a target for Barcelona, is believed to be valued at just £4m more than Henderson. He has over 20 caps for Italy and is still just 24.
To take an example from last summer, given this transfer window is still in its infancy, a player of the quality and class of Mesut Ozil cost Real Madrid only £13m when joining the club from Werder Bremen. He has the talent to be one of the leading playmakers of his generation and moved to Madrid off the back of a World Cup in which he was one of the finest players of the tournament.
Of course, Ozil's price was driven down by the fact that he had only one year remaining on his contract, but that only underlines there are bargains to be had.
To take another example, if he does indeed leave Arsenal then Samir Nasri - a man who gave Henderson the runaround in his only appearance for England - will probably cost something similar to the Sunderland man for the same reason that Ozil was available on the cheap.
The key, of course, is that Liverpool at present are not capable of attracting such players; their absence from the Champions League dictates that much. Instead they must lower their sights and gamble big on the youth of Henderson, and hope that a player like Adam is more than just a flash in the pan, even if you suspect equivalent talents could be found for cheaper elsewhere.
In this context their recruitment policy makes a touch more sense as Dalglish tries to assemble a squad capable of breaking back into the top four. But any higher aspirations - competing with Manchester United, Chelsea and possibly Manchester City for the title - may require another heavy outlay in the transfer market.
Thankfully, it is a task the club's board have demonstrated they are willing to take on.
