Had things gone to Liverpool's initial plan, July 4 would have been Luis Diaz's first day as a Liverpool player.
Jurgen Klopp and the club's recruitment team had earmarked the Colombian winger as a signing for this summer's transfer window after placing him top of a shortlist of attacking options last year.
However, even for a club who pride themselves on the decisive execution of the best-laid plans, Anfield officials were forced to pivot at the turn of the year.
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After Tottenham made their advances known, new sporting director Julian Ward opened his extensive Portuguese contacts book before a move was made in the final days of the January window.
A deal worth an initial £37m was struck with Porto and Diaz gave Liverpool a huge shot in the arm for the second half of the campaign. The South American hit the Anfield turf at speed and was a big factor in helping them push all the way to the cusp of a historic quadruple, turning in Man of the Match performances in both domestic cup finals to boot.
But while the addition of Diaz from January onwards was viewed as a welcome bonus for Klopp and his staff, it has always been known that pre-season is when the 25-year-old would really be moulded into a Liverpool player.
The opening few months of life on Merseyside were punctuated by a lack of detailed tactical instructions for the Los Cafeteros international. Klopp was wary of overloading his new wideman with too much information and instead, Diaz was encouraged to play his natural game.
But as Liverpool approach summer schedule with something of a new-look strike force following the £64m arrival of Darwin Nunez, Diaz's level of responsibility in that frontline is expected to increase and a full pre-season will be key to adjusting fully.
"We have a pre-season next summer when we can work on all the little things with him, where we can do those fine adjustments," Klopp said earlier this year. "Every coach would say the same about a January signing. You do it, but if you could, you would do it in the summer."
"Yes, the start has been really good. But he is a long-term project for us and we are a long-term project for him. There is loads more to come."
Diaz is part of the contingent who reported for duty at the club's AXA Training Centre on Monday and it's a firmly held belief within the camp that a full summer of work on the training pitch goes a long way towards a successful season for individual players.
Klopp added: "For the player, what I can say is, when we were looking at him, it is not so easy to bring in a player in the winter without any kind of pre-season.
"But with Luis, it was interesting because the way he played at Porto is exactly the way we want him to play here.
"So he hasn't had to adapt really. He still has his moments defensively but he has speed and is a pretty good dribbler. He can carry the ball pretty quick and his dribbling is not bad.
"I don't think we have seen the full range of his shooting skills that we saw when we scouted him, so there is a lot of space for improvement but he is a good player."
Such was Diaz's perhaps unexpected impact following his mid-season move that he eventually made the spot on the left of Liverpool's front three his own, forcing Sadio Mane into a new central role where he shone.
It's testament to how well Diaz performed that he was still able to clock up as many as 26 appearances despite signing at the end of January and his six goals scored don't do justice to some of the electric displays he put on during that time.
"I saw the manager say something like he's never seen anyone love training so much!" Trent Alexander-Arnold said of Diaz last season. "You can see that. He absolutely loves it. He's so enthusiastic, he's so energetic and he's an outstanding lad. I think when we do have to mark him in training, I'll be saying to Robbo: 'Your turn!'"
Perhaps a key drill during these next few weeks then will be working on the link-up play with left-back Andy Robertson down their side of attack. The Scotland captain formed a formidable partnership of sorts with Mane during their five years together in the Liverpool team and a similar level of understanding with Diaz could spell trouble for opposition defences.
To work effectively in tandem, however, will take time, which is a rare commodity that Liverpool finally have over the next few weeks as they fine tune themselves for another tilt at the biggest prizes in football this coming campaign.
"Hopefully he will only get better," Robertson said after Diaz's second-half introduction turned the Champions League semi-final tie with Villarreal their way in early May. "With a full pre-season under his belt I believe he will get better, which is scary."
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