Tottenham Hotspur and particularly their fans have been here before with the club attempting to sign an exciting player only to be pipped at the post by a more powerful club.
The race for Luis Diaz is all but over as the stirring awake of Liverpool, who had been expected to sign the Colombian this coming summer, suggests that Spurs will have to turn their attentions elsewhere.
The 25-year-old and his agent's choice is believed to be the Reds, with the lure of Jurgen Klopp's side too much, despite Tottenham being willing to match Porto's valuation of the player.
It of course leads to questions over whether Spurs should have moved earlier in the window for Diaz, although Liverpool likely would have also got wind of the move then. Perhaps the plan was to try to leave the Merseyside club with as little time to react as possible. If so, it does not appear to have worked.
Spurs have captured top targets in the recent past with the likes of Tanguy Ndombele, who they are now desperately trying to offload, and Cristian Romero, however, as with most clubs, the list of those missed out on is far higher.
If, as expected, Tottenham lose out on Diaz then it's been a week in which they also saw another target in Adama Traore heading back towards his old club Barcelona, albeit with a £29m option to buy on top of the loan fee - a huge amount in total for a player approaching the final year of his contract and with questions over his end product.
Spurs were understood to be furious when news of the Diaz talks with Porto leaked into the Portuguese media, yet that's how football works for everyone and with his agent also being keen on Liverpool, Klopp's side would likely have always been kept in the loop about any developments.
Those fears about other clubs sniffing around are because of the situation Spurs now find themselves in.
Antonio Conte put it best when he said: "We need to have patience because there is a lot, a lot of job to do in many aspects.
"I think honestly that in this moment and the last years the level of Tottenham has dropped, it has dropped a lot. Now you have to rebuild. To rebuild you need to have patience and to have patience you need to have time. We have to know the situation.
"The situation is very clear. Then I understand that it’s not simple to accept this situations, especially for the fans. We’re working a lot to try to fight also in the league and stay [up there], but at the moment we’re in the middle. Our situation is this. We’re in the middle, not up and not down, we're in the middle."
In such a short space of time, Tottenham are far from the club that finished in the top three for three consecutive seasons under Mauricio Pochettino before reaching the Champions League final with another top four spot to boot.
Poor decisions have been made from the top of the club down that have brought through the door a string of managers in just over two and a half years, Nuno Espirito Santo in particular lasting just a few months.
There have also been failures in the transfer market, not least the two crucial inactive windows ahead of that Champions League final appearance but also the windows that came next.
The summer of 2019, when Spurs did start to spend money, is now with hindsight looking like a shocker of a window.
They spent around £110m all in on Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso, who are both now already being pushed towards the exit door after failing to become regular starters for a variety of reasons.
Jack Clarke, signed that summer for around £10m, has just joined League One side Sunderland on loan with just 95 competitive minutes for the first team under his belt.
Ryan Sessegnon has struggled with injury and is still seen as one with plenty of potential, but in the cold light of day has made just seven Premier League starts for the club in 10 appearances for them so far in the competition.
The following January window brought Steven Bergwijn and Gedson Fernandes. The former has shown moments of promise amid injury issues but is the subject of continued interest from Ajax to already take him back to the Netherlands, while Fernandes' 18-month loan deal was cut short because he was not of the level required.
Then in came Fabio Paratici as managing director of football, a man Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has chased for more than half a decade, with the Italian arriving halfway through a chaotic managerial search that only got messier as the club abandoned Levy's very clear and public edict for the profile of the next manager.
With the appointment of Espirito Santo so Paratici attempted to build a squad for the Portuguese, but so far of the five signings made last summer, only Cristian Romero, last season's Serie A defender of the year, looks to be the real deal and injury has meant he has made just six Premier League starts so far.
There's also a certain irony to the fact that Barcelona could use the money Spurs gave them for Emerson Royal to permanently sign in the summer the player in Traore that Spurs wanted to replace the Brazilian just six months after signing him.
Now 28 days into the January transfer window and Spurs are yet to start shaping Conte's squad for him.
The club raised the expectations of the fans with the appointment of the former Inter Milan and Chelsea boss and he has not been shy in making his feelings known about the lack of quality in the squad both publicly and behind closed doors at Tottenham.
Yet there are parallels with the summer's farcical managerial search in that a logical approach and plan has instead thus far been discarded for what seems to be impulse opportunities.
Tottenham were looking for a new right wing-back, another striker and Conte asked for a central midfielder, with plans to sign a left-sided centre-back pushed back to the summer.
Yet instead Spurs held more talks for Traore, someone Paratici is a big fan of, with the view of awkwardly converting him into a wing-back despite question marks over his defensive ability.
The move for Diaz was understandable in that the 25-year-old is a thrilling player seemingly available now in the market and would be a statement signing. You do try to move for such top level players but even he goes against the planned thought for the window and the priorities required in Conte's squad.
That Barcelona and potentially Liverpool are going to snatch two players from Tottenham's clutches is not a surprise in itself with their global allure for players, but it does shine the light again on the situation in N17.
You can't make poor decisions with a football club and still expect to dine at the top table without others more powerful ensuring you don't take anything they wanted to put on their plates.
The fans are growing more and more frustrated and there is a sense that Spurs are wasting their Conte opportunity by resorting to their tried, tested and hit and miss philosophy of scrambling late in transfer windows for 'opportunities', a word uttered by many a beleaguered Tottenham manager.
Yet it is still too early for the post-mortem to begin and Tottenham still have just enough time to salvage the situation ahead of Monday's 11pm deadline.
The way Paratici, who has been back home in Italy this week, works could help them, with his preference to negotiate with numerous targets for each position meaning that logically he can switch to other players after disappointments.
The key now is that Spurs return to their plans and they leave Conte's squad in a stronger state on Monday night than it was before.
Various players have been linked with leaving the club but they should only do so if Paratici can balance their departures with signings in the right areas.
New faces have to arrive. Conte has asked for them and told football.london this month that it wasn't even about waiting for 'good opportunities', he just needs extra bodies in certain areas.
The summer is set to be a big window when it comes to the future for Conte and the ambition of the squad, but in his words, the process needs to begin now.
While it might not please the money men at the club, having a slightly bloated squad with additional options would be preferable to one weakened.
There could well be the temptation to pull off another big Diaz-style statement signing in order to appease the fans but the most important thing is that Spurs help Conte, not their image.
It's late and the pressure is on, but Tottenham needs to stick to some sort of plan rather than meandering towards disappointment.
