Manchester United seemingly missed a hint from ex-assistant manager Carlos Queiroz before Liverpool beat them to the signing of Porto 's Luis Diaz.
Jurgen Klopp 's side are set to snap up the electric winger before Monday's deadline for £50million, leaving the Red Devils wondering what might have been after the 25-year-old was compared to none other than Cristiano Ronaldo.
Queiroz coached Diaz for Colombia until December 2020 and compared his journey to that of Ronaldo's, who also came to the Premier League from Portugal.
"Now Luis, he's in a phase of adaptation to European football," Sir Alex Ferguson 's former right-hand man explained.
"He's learning from a mistake here and there, like what happened to other great players that he's had in my career like [Luis] Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo and [Paulo] Futre."
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Queiroz played a part in Ronaldo's development at Old Trafford, later being his boss outright with the Portuguese national team.
The Red Devils were linked with Diaz before Liverpool's capture, with the lighting quick forward expected to undergo a medical over the weekend while on international duty.
But the Manchester Evening News report that United were never truly in for Diaz due to their abundance of right-footed left wingers, such as Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho.
Although chiefs at Old Trafford may not have been seriously targeting the Colombian, Mirror Football understands that Tottenham Hotspur were chasing him, but Diaz rejected Antonio Conte 's team in hope of holding out for a higher-level move.
Meanwhile, Merseyside rivals Everton saw their advances rejected last summer as they offered James Rodriguez in a swap deal.
Now it looks like Diaz will be playing his football at Anfield and he already has admirers in the dressing room.
Goalkeeper Alisson Becker has faced him three times this season for club and country, and said ahead of Brazil 's World Cup qualifying clash with Colombia: "Luis Diaz is an excellent player, he does a lot of work for the defence, he did it in the goals of Copa America.
"In Porto he comes with good performances, and here our task is to see Colombia as a whole and to worry about how we should destroy it."
Portuguese publication A Bola recently raved about the Premier League targeting by claiming: "In the field, he has been an indomitable dragon, capable of taking the team without help to incredible heights.
"The price rises week by week and the sharks of England no longer just salivate with what they observe in the field.
"He is an ace that seems to literally lives on a separate planet."
