Diogo Jota embodied everything that Reds stand for, he'll be a champion forever

LIVERPOOL players, they come and they go, but not like this. Never should it be in such heartbreakingly traumatic circumstances as this.

- By PAUL GORST

This should have been the summer of Diogo Jota’s life; a period that would have one day had him regaling his grandchildren with.

Premier League champion with Liverpool and a Nations League winner at Portugal, all before marrying his long-term partner, Rute, in a ceremony attended by their three children.

They were halcyon days for the much-loved Jota, even if they were all too fleeting.

His wedding day, an occasion where he was “bursting with love” according to his Reds teammate Andy Robertson, was less than a fortnight ago.

That everyone at Liverpool is now facing up to both trying to process his death in the immediate aftermath and the long-term effects of coping with such brutal loss seems cruel.

For Rute, their children and Jota's parents, who are also dealing with the death of younger sibling Andre, it is a fate that is incomprehensible.

Even for a football club that is used to having the firm grip of grief to its throat, this one will feel different. How could it not?