Pep Lijnders was enjoying a ski break with his wife when suddenly duty called.
When you're Jurgen Klopp's trusted assistant manager you can never quite be sure what is going to come next, but helping to negotiate one of the most important transfers of Liverpool's recent history wasn't on his agenda that day.
Because while by early January the Reds hierarchy would surely have known that Sadio Mane had his eyes on a new challenge come the summer, the plan was to bring in a new left-sided attacker in place of the Senegalese club legend at the end of the season.
Players had been scouted extensively, and initial deals set up, but when Tottenham made significant moves on the player Liverpool had identified as their No.1 Mane replacement in this very transfer window, then the Reds had to leap into action.
Even if they were on the slopes.
"I was on a skiing trip with my wife Danielle when, during dinner, our sporting director called me: 'You and Jürgen have to speak with Luis Diaz in five minutes. We’ve just agreed with Porto but Tottenham are all-in as well,'" writes Lijnders in his new book I ntensity: Inside Liverpool FC - Our Identity , published by Reach Sport.
"I joined the call and Jürgen was explaining to Luis how he would fit into our style and that we would help him.
"He said in reference to me joining [the call], 'But you will hear this guy much more often!'
"To which I immediately said, 'But I will explain things more calmly than Sergio [Conceicao, the Porto manager]!' To which Luis laughed.
"I told him: 'We want you desperately and have been pushing for the last one-and-a-half months with our owners and our sporting director, but you know that these kinds of transfers are not easy to accomplish."
Indeed it wasn't, but the Reds had already enjoyed a close-up look at Diaz during Champions League group stage clashes with Porto, where the Colombian had impressed during the first half of Liverpool's 2-0 win at Anfield in November.
Quick and direct, he would have created a first half goal for one of his teammates if only they had produced better finishes, but Lijnders and Liverpool knew they could have something special on their hands once they teamed him up with Anfield's vast array of stars.
'The good thing is you will train with Virgil, Robbo and Trent and they will make you so much stronger," was Lijnders' message to Diaz.
'Our idea is to create and score; you will have to tear these guys apart each day in training, which will make you better.'
"His agent translated Jürgen’s message and [sporting director] Julian Ward said, 'These two will make you a better player.'
"I told him there were not many clubs with more history and culture than Porto but Liverpool was one of them and he would feel this.
“Julian then walked with his phone to the trophy cabinet at AXA (training centre) and finished with: 'We want to add to this and that’s why we want you.'
"If the boy wasn’t convinced, he would be now."
Indeed, Diaz would help add to that trophy cabinet, with the new boy picking up both the League Cup and FA Cup within his first four months at the club.
The Premier League and Champions League would elude him and Liverpool, but he'll be central to the desire to chase them in the new season.
Pep Lijnders Intensity: Inside Liverpool FC - Our Identity, published by Reach Sport, is on sale August 4 from Amazon
