The decision to step away from a pursuit of Jude Bellingham might eventually come to be known as the sliding doors moment for the final years of Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool reign.
It was a decision that became an increasingly easy one to make for the club the further last season went on. Prior to the World Cup, Liverpool believed there was a deal to be done with Borussia Dortmund at around £80m before the England international's valuation skyrocketed thanks to his performances for the Three Lions at the Qatar showpiece in November and December.
As it rolled into the New Year, it became more apparent that Liverpool's dip in form was down to more than just their previous season's exertions and the idea of Bellingham becoming the silver bullet to cure the ills became harder to justify.
After a particularly difficult six weeks at the start of 2023 saw the Reds comfortably beaten by the likes of Brentford, Brighton and Wolves, the thought process began to shift gradually inside the AXA Training Centre.
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And with no real indication given by Bellingham's camp that he would opt for Liverpool anyway, the decision was taken to step away from a chase for the most in-demand player in European football around March time.
The news was initially met with widespread frustration given both the club's long-standing interest and admiration for the recently-turned 20-year-old and the fact that other transfer targets had been previously eschewed in favour of an all-out charm offensive to bring him in.
Having fluttered their eyelashes in the direction of the midfielder for the best part of two years, the call to walk away some months before the summer transfer window opened, having accepted he was beyond their means, was initially viewed, by some, as further evidence of an empire in decline under Klopp, from the outside at least.
On the inside, however, it was decreed that the summer's rebuild would be about more than just one player and the wisdom of allocating what would have been the lion's share of the budget to a single arrival was ultimately folly, regardless of how talented Bellingham is.
Those on the inside at the time likened the situation to the club's decision to bring in Sami Hyypia and Stephane Henchoz in 1999 for a combined sum of around £6m rather than fork out a club-record fee for Rio Ferdinand, then at West Ham United.
In an effort to tighten up a porous defence, Gerard Houllier plumped for the little-known Hyypia from Dutch side Willem II for £2.6m alongside Switzerland international Henchoz from Blackburn Rovers at £3.5m. A little over a year later, Ferdinand moved to Leeds United for a world record fee for a centre-back of £18m.
Hyypia and Henchoz formed the bedrock of Liverpool's defence for the coming years and were instrumental in the 2000/2001 season when the Reds won a treble of the UEFA Cup, League Cup and FA Cup while also securing a place in the Champions League for the first time since it was rebranded in the early 1990s. The former played over 450 games for the Reds and is a club legend.
Heading into the summer, some were using this as an example for what the Reds needed to repeat if they were to emerge from the Bellingham saga stronger and with less than a week to go until Klopp welcomes his players back to the AXA Centre for the start of the pre-season schedule, it's fair to say the mood is a buoyant one given what has transpired since.
While Bellingham joined Real Madrid for a fee that would rise to £115m - making him the most expensive Englishman of all time - Liverpool have instead opted to lay out £95m on Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai so far. It's an exciting double swoop that promises much for a new-look midfield next term.
Both players had release clauses inserted into their contracts, which saw Klopp and his recruitment team avoid the sort of protracted saga that Manchester United have experienced with their move for £60m-rated Mason Mount at Chelsea. It's also something they might have found themselves subjected to had they tried to stay the course in the battle for Bellingham.
Without the bounty of the Champions League income in the same summer that a major rebuild was needed inside the squad, the idea of a blockbuster, club-record package for a player also coveted by the 14-time champions of Europe in Real Madrid was, with the benefit of hindsight, a difficult strategy to execute properly.
Instead, Liverpool have kicked off their window by committing to their biggest outlay since 2018 already with the transfer window just a few weeks old. Hindsight will ultimately determine if it was the right decision, but the mood has been transformed and few are arguing against it right now.
