THERE has been plenty to tug at our heart strings during this transfer window.
How we have lapped up the tear-stained departure letters from Philippe Coutinho and Alexis Sanchez.
How we have cherished Tim Cahill returning to Millwall, warming the cockles of those sentimental old souls down at The Den.
And only yesterday, how we cooed at the tender watchfulness of thousands of Arsenal fans tracking Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s private jet to Luton Airport on an internet flight radar.
But the most heartening move of all must have been Daniel Sturridge’s loan switch to West Brom.
No, genuinely.
According to many fine judges, Sturridge is England’s most naturally-gifted goalscorer, blessed with supreme pace, balance and technique, along with a striking instinct superior even to Harry Kane.
At 28, Sturridge should be at the peak of his career.
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He has played for three of the Premier League’s top four clubs, gone to three major tournaments and scored at them all and netted a beauty to open the scoring in Liverpool’s most recent cup final appearance.
In the first 18 months of his Anfield career, his strike rate exceeded those of greats such as Robbie Fowler, Ian Rush and Michael Owen.
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So how on earth has he ended up at West Brom, Premier League strugglers and lacking even the big-club veneer of rival bidders Newcastle?
The answer is that Sturridge is desperate.
Desperate to play football, a mindset which might seem like a given for any professional football player, but which has often been doubted in his case. Desperate to force his way back into the plans of England manager Gareth Southgate, who has become deeply sceptical about the player.
And also seemingly desperate to change some damaging public perceptions which have clung to him throughout his career.
As a kid at Manchester City, he was perceived as ungrateful in turning down a contract and forcing a move to Chelsea. At Chelsea, he supposedly had ideas above his station after growing tired of playing on the wing.
But 31 goals in his first 43 Premier League appearances for Liverpool suggested Sturridge was every bit as good a striker as he had imagined.
It was an even better rate than that of Luis Suarez, his strike partner during the Anfield spring of 2014 when Brendan Rodgers so nearly brought the title back to Merseyside.
Since then, though, Sturridge has been saddled with the widespread popular belief — hardly discouraged by boss Jurgen Klopp — that he was unprepared to break the pain barrier, too easily succumbing to niggles which most professionals would gladly suffer.
Sturridge versus Klopp always looked like being a clash of personalities and styles.
Even when fully fit, the striker is no manic gegenpresser — and he has not been fully fit too often since Klopp’s arrival in the autumn of 2015.
Yet were perceptions of laziness true, were Sturridge genuinely lacking in stomach and desire, would he have asked for a loan move and agreed to join West Brom?
There are no hiding places in the relegation mud-wrestle the Baggies are involved in.
There will be no soft-soaping from Alan Pardew who, for all his pretty-boy pretensions, remains a former non-league footballer and window-fitter at heart.
And there will be no easy pickings in a side which did not win between August and January because it does not create enough chances.
These will be hard yards for Sturridge — beginning at the Etihad against Manchester City tonight — but should his goals fire Albion to safety, he might be rewarded in Russia this summer.
He deserves greater respect, Daniel Sturridge. And more so than ever after this.
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