With Luis Suarez getting his wish to leave Anfield, the one major regret for Liverpool fans is the fact that he could not help them over the line in the Premier League before his departure.

But at the end of the day, the Uruguayan's 31 league goals last season were vitally important as the Reds enjoyed a renaissance and came agonizingly close to a first league title since 1990.

The major challenge for Brendan Rodgers now is how best to replace Suarez. This can be done by trying to find a like-for-like replacement. But with players like Suarez that is rarely possible and the Reds have can for a different - and presumably wiser - strategy of bringing in players who bring different qualities such as Adam Lallana and Lazar Markovic. That perhaps means a tweak to the system in order to compensate for the loss of Suarez and also to find a way of bringing in cohesion for the newcomers and the players that were there before.

How have other Premier League clubs coped when their big name players has gone to pastures new ahead of a new season?

 

Arsenal

The Gunners had been used to losing big name players every summer since moving to the Emirates Stadium in 2006.

The first to go was club legend Thierry Henry who left for Barcelona in 2007. Sure, he might have gone on to win the Champions League under Pep Guardiola two years later but for Arsene Wenger 2007 was the right time to move the club's record goalscorer elsewhere.

Cesc Fabregas admitted that the youngsters around the Frenchman felt the need to almost automatically pick out Henry for passes even when others were better placed due to Henry's stature.

And the following season, Arsenal seemed to benefit from Henry's departure as a young side played with freedom and made a strong start to the season.

Perhaps if his indirect replacement Eduardo had not suffered a horrific leg break in February 2008 and Arsenal had not slipped up to Birmingham in that very match, the Gunners may have had the mental fortitude to win the Premier League title.

Thierry Henry at Arsenal in 2007 ©INPHO/Getty Images

The possession-centric style that Wenger implemented started after Henry's departure and as Fabregas' influence in more advanced roles grew over the next few seasons, it allowed for a move from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3.

Fabregas would also depart in 2011, along with Samir Nasri, yet Arsenal managed to maintain their Top 4 place the following season, their terrible start to the season notwithstanding. Perhaps the biggest problem for Arsenal at the start of that season was the fact that they sought Fabregas' replacements late in the day with Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker, Andre Santos and Park Chu Young all arriving on deadline day and having little time to bed in.

The Gunners just about managed to maintain fourth place again the following season but at least they had brought in Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud early in the summer, before Robin Van Persie was sold to Manchester United.

 

Manchester United

Unlike Arsenal, Manchester United have rarely had to sell talismans. But they did experience that situation on one occasion when Cristiano Ronaldo left for Real Madrid for a world record transfer fee in the summer of 2009.

Interestingly, only Antonio Valencia was brought in as a major signing, while Michael Owen also arrived on a free.

Alex Ferguson's side had outlasted both Liverpool and Chelsea in 2008/09, winning the Premier League by four points and losing just four times.

Luis Nani, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs celebrating victory at the end of the 2009 Premier League season ©INPHO/Getty Images

Fast forward 12 months sans Ronaldo and they lost the title to the Blues by just one point, although they did lose three more matches in all. Perhaps the biggest drop-off was in Europe where United went from Champions League finalists to bowing out to Bayern at the quarter-final stage.

That first season without the Portugal winger also happened to be Wayne Rooney's finest from a goalscoring perspective as he threatened to become Man United's main man for the foreseeable future.

 

Tottenham 

Losing Gareth Bale to Real Madrid last summer was a huge blow. Getting over €100 million in compensation was pretty good consolation. But Tottenham's transfer policy last summer was nothing short of disappointing.

Buying in bulk they spent most of that Bale fee on seven players most of whom failed to bed in during a season of flux and only one or two of whom made a positive impact - namely Christian Eriksen. 

Spurs had become acutely reliant on Bale's match-winning ability in his final season, with the next highest goalscorer being veteran Jermain Defoe on 11 goals. The signing of Roberto Soldado has yet to provide the goals which Bale provided.