Nothing too much was expected from Liverpool before the January window closed.
But after what has been a whirlwind few days a £37.5m deal to sign Colombian striker Luis Diaz from Porto has been completed, with the deal reaching its positive conclusion despite the logistical challenges of the club and player being on different continents and the player gearing himself up for international action.
Jurgen Klopp spoke with Diaz over Zoom, and when the terms were agreed with Porto and Diaz's agent the Reds sent a delegation out to Argentina to conduct the medical and tie up all the necessary loose ends. It was completed well in advance of the window closing.
Liverpool are also chasing Fulham starlet Fabio Carvalho before the klaxon sounds, while Nathaniel Phillips, Takumi Minamino, Neco Williams and Divock Origi could all court interest before the day is out. It is a breathless time for club secretaries.
Transfer deadline day usually conjures visions of football club power brokers huddled around a fax machine waiting nervously for it to crank into action in order to get a signing over the line.
The final day of the transfer window sees clubs either press the button on finally trying to get a deal over the line for a long-time target, assessing their own need as a team and also the position of the club they are wanting to sign the player from, with late deals often done in haste to either solve a squad issue or a financial one.
Managers will have a list of targets and it is the work of the sporting directors and recruitment department to be engaging with player agents and trying to make moves happen, with the final day of the window in constant flux and having the potential to turn on its head in a matter of hours.
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But how does a deal pan out?
Agents are often painted as the bad guys of the transfer market, driving up wages and prices for clubs, engineering moves for their clients and their own benefit and bagging themselves a nice sum at the end of it.
And while there are some sharks in the water, agents do play a key role for football clubs, especially on deadline day, and can be the key to whether a deal lives or dies.
In his book 'Done Deal', sports lawyer Daniel Geey explained: "Many agents do earn significant sums, but they are well rewarded partly because of the fragile and unpredictable nature of their job.
"The glamorous signing ceremony is only the tip of the player-management iceberg. The primary role of a player's agent may be to understand when, on the one hand, to aggressively push for a transfer or a new contract with the club and when, on the other hand, to be the diplomat if a player is having trouble settling in, struggling with management or not performing on the pitch.
"An agent does their best work when managing and leveraging situations (both positive and negative) to a player's advantage.
"Clubs need good agents for selling and buying players, and almost all clubs realise this. They build up relationships with trusted agents so that deals can be pushed through when they need to happen. This means clubs cannot afford to burn bridges with some agents.
"Agents understand who is in the market for a particular player and who can match up a player who is no longer needed at one club with an opportunity somewhere else.
"A selling club's chairman may not be aware of that opening. Agents have a fuller picture of the selling and buying market and can be of key value to selling as well as buying clubs.
"Agents are also aware of the moving parts of various deals that can cause chain reactions. Individual club executives may not have this visibility.
"Agents are unlikely to receive much sympathy from fans for the job they do, but in my experience they are very much a necessity for clubs and players alike, and many provide a skill set necessary to get a deal over the line."
Managers usually like to make contact with a player before pressing the button on a deal. They will have been aware of what their talents are on the pitch for some time, but a chat personally often gives a manager some insight into a players' head space, whether or not they are enthusiastic about a move and whether their motivations around the new challenge marry with what the manager wants to bring to the club.
Once a target has been identified the club is approached and an agreement over the fee, how it will be paid and any clauses that will form part of the deal sorted out.
If a player is coming from abroad then clubs often want to get the deal done in person and this is where private jets come into play.
Back in January of 2021, Marseille defender Duje Caleta-Car was ready and waiting to board a flight to the UK to sort out a deal to come to Liverpool on deadline day but never boarded the flight after the French side pulled the plug on a deal after not being able to sort out a replacement in time.
Liverpool ended up moving for Ozan Kabak on loan instead. Pivoting from one target to another shows the break-neck pace at which the late stages of a window works.
Buying clubs like to get players in face to face before a deal is done, especially when paying big fees, as it takes away some of the risk and allows for club medical staff to assess them ahead of a full medical.
Dealing with agents is where salaries are sorted, commissions agreed with the intermediaries and any other such conditions such as travel arrangements and accommodation are all sorted.
When it is mid-way through a transfer window then there is no real pressure on time, unless it is to get a deal done before anybody else has the chance to come in and gazump it. But on deadline day, when time is of the essence, clubs have to be swift.
The fax machine has been retired now but Premier League clubs have a number of options to send documents to the League and are able to send desktop faxes and scanned documents via e-mail.
In order to register a player the Premier League must be in receipt of all the documents relating to the transfer, including the contract, the transfer agreement, permission to work in the UK if it is required and international clearance if signing players from abroad.
Premier League staff then process the paperwork and ensure that, if signing a player from overseas, that all the details match up between the buying and selling club via FIFA's Transfer Matching System. Only if all details from both sides are correct will a transfer be approved.
Buying players on the final day of the window comes with risk. Clubs are making a heavy investment and want to make sure that the players that they are signing are in top shape, which is where medicals come in, which usually take the best part of a day.
With just a couple of hours of a window remaining clubs will have to look at past injury records and take medical advice from the selling club before committing, although they will conduct their own full medical after a deal has been completed, although that is not ideal.
But buying clubs would have had access to medical records send over from the medical professionals at the selling club that would be pored over by doctors and medical staff so that some of the jeopardy is removed.
But some deals happen very late indeed, just minutes before the window closes.
With the window shutting at 11pm, for any deal that clubs want to get done in the two hours before then a deal sheet needs to be submitted.
A deal sheet allows a club to confirm that a deal has been reached so that they can be afforded additional time to complete all of the relevant documentation to the League. A deal sheet cannot be used prior to 9pm on deadline day.
The deal sheet simply tells the Premier League the proposed transfer, transfer fee and conditions, and if accepted it gives clubs a two-hour extension until 1am to get all of the paperwork sent across to the League and to ensure that both clubs are able to match up their details on the FIFA TMS.
According to the Premier League: "If there is a problem and a club does not meet the deadline then the Premier League Board has the ability to either refuse the application or grant an application and, if thought necessary, impose conditions by which the club making the application and the player shall be bound."
Before any documentation is sent across for final submission the legal team at the buying a selling club will have looked over the deal and all parties having reached full agreement over every detail. Even the smallest hiccup on deadline day can result in a transfer failing to make it over the line.
After that it is a case of the Premier League and FA sorting out the registration and relevant clearance, by which time clubs have already been able to announce their new signing to their legions of fans around the globe.
A 30-second welcome video masks the fraught nature of the hours in the build up to getting a deal done.
A version of this story appeared in the ECHO on August 31, 2021.
