Despite their best efforts with Fabio Carvalho, deadline day in January 2022 passed without Liverpool making any signings.
This made a sharp contrast with what occurred 12 months ago.
For the first time since his first winter transfer window with the club, Jurgen Klopp made two mid-season signings by snapping up Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak on February 1 last year.
While their acquisitions made sense considering the defensive injury crisis the club was suffering from at the time, neither player has made a lasting impression at Liverpool.
Not that it would be fair to criticise them for that, of course, but they do show how difficult it is to come from the lower leagues or on loan and become successful at a top club.
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Davies joined from Championship side Preston and has yet to make a senior appearance for Liverpool.
He was included in the match day squad eight times in 2020/21, got a total of 40 minutes during pre-season last summer, and has been on loan with Sheffield United in this campaign.
Liverpool have had success with Andy Robertson, Gini Wijnaldum and Xherdan Shaqiri, players who were all with Championship-bound clubs when they were signed.
But being relegated from the Premier League is obviously a different situation to moving up from the second tier itself, and very few players have made the move which Davies did.
Joe Gomez is unquestionably the best example of recent times, and even then he was a teenage prospect with only 24 senior appearances on his CV.
Other than him, purchases from the lower leagues in the last decade or so have largely been made for back-up goalkeepers. It was always going to be a big ask for Davies to force his way into Klopp’s team on a regular basis.
Kabak arrived with a higher reputation, but Liverpool’s history is not littered with too many successful loanees either.
The only previous temporary signing under Klopp was Steven Caulker, a defender from QPR who saw more outings as an emergency centre-forward when Liverpool were desperately seeking a goal late on in games.
Klopp’s predecessor Brendan Rodgers utilised the most loan players of any manager at the club, but none of his four was a resounding success.
Nuri Sahin undoubtedly had pedigree but didn’t settle and the loan agreement was terminated after only four months.
Aly Cissokho became something of a cult hero during 2013/14, while Victor Moses was also with Liverpool on loan that season but barely featured in the second half of the campaign.
Javier Manquillo, more recently with Newcastle, had the same experience the following year, making 19 appearances in total but only three once 2014 had turned to 2015.
When compared to how these players fared, Kabak could almost be considered a success as far as loanees go.
The Turkish defender made 13 starts last season, with Liverpool keeping six clean sheets in those games, as many as they’d mustered in the 21 matches prior to his debut.
But despite having an option in place to purchase Kabak for £18.5m (plus add-ons) last summer, the Reds chose to invest £36m in Ibrahima Konate instead. On the evidence so far, they made the correct decision.
It will be interesting to see in years to come if the purchase of Luis Diaz represents a firm change in mid-season policy at Liverpool or if it will remain a deal spurred into life by a rival Premier League club looking to sign the player.
The Colombian is arguably the Reds’ most exciting attacking signing in a winter window for about a decade.
Virgil van Dijk will remain the best defensive acquisition at this time of year, and you could clearly make a case that Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge set the pulses racing in 2013.
But with Diaz’ level of top flight, Champions League and international experience it’s no wonder fans are excited now.
Klopp has never been the biggest fan of the January transfer window, but there was arguably a hint of frustration from the boss when the situation was unfolding at the start of 2021.
But everyone inside the club will be delighted with how things panned out this year.
After the signing of Diaz last week, Klopp said: “I have always been a believer in only signing players in January if you would want to sign them in the summer, and that’s very much the case with Luis."
Yet he also made the point that "this team deserved to add quality".
Clearly FSG agreed - and the deal for Diaz was done after some speedy work behind the scenes.
Kopites will hope the days of punts on loanees and signings from the Championship in winter have now ended, with further higher profile players the order of the day.
