As the clock ticked over at midnight on 1 January and Jools Holland whooped his way through a pre-recorded singalong, Trent Alexander-Arnold's contract saga entered a new stage.
The 26-year-old Liverpool full-back, long seen as a future club captain and the most exciting attacking defender of his generation, became free to sign a pre-contract agreement with other clubs around Europe.
With Alexander-Arnold, Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk all out of contract in the summer, it's the defender's status that continues to garner the most interest due to a combination of his age profile, the club linked to him and his status as a Scouser.
Alexander-Arnold’s will he/won’t he psycho-drama has kept tabloid headline writers busy and fuelled 100s of podcasting hours but as the player was substituted late on against Manchester United after an awful display, questions are now being asked as to whether it is harming his on-pitch performance.
The full-back played a role in both on United’s goals in the 2-2 draw at Anfield and turned in a turgid 86 minutes of football, devoid of energy, positioning or accuracy.
Real Madrid’s £20million bid for the player may have realistically been designed to loudly signal their interest in signing Alexander-Arnold on a free transfer, but with former Reds defender Jamie Carragher claiming that the bid would not have been made without the player's blessing, the stakes have risen further.
It’s not like Liverpool haven’t been here before. Both Michael Owen and Steve McManaman had their prolonged contract dramas before eventually opting for Madrid and both emerged with blemishes on their legacy with local fans as a result.
While Owen would eventually ensure that he became persona non grata on the Kop after he rocked up at Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, his initial exit from Anfield was not viewed in as harsh a light as McManaman’s.
Owen left at the start of the 04/05 campaign after scoring 216 goals for the club, having sat on the bench for Champions League qualifiers to prevent him being cup-tied for the tournament.
Sixteen months of contract talks had proven to be fruitless and in the end the club accepted an offer of £8m along with Antonio Nunez going the other way.
Liverpool fans had respected Owen and his performances - he won the Ballon d'Or in 2001 - but he was never embraced by them in the same way that Robbie Fowler had been and despite being a local-ish academy graduate, his exit was greeted with resignation more than anger.
That was reserved for his move to Old Trafford.
McManaman, by contrast, left Anfield under a much darker cloud, having been perceived to have strung the club along during a lengthy contract negotiation process.
Much like Alexander-Arnold, McManaman was a local boy seen as the future captain of the club, having come through the academy, but year-long contract talks rumbled along amid bids from Spain with both Barcelona and Real Madrid circling.
When he eventually signed a pre-contract deal with Madrid in January of 1999, McManaman’s performances fell off a cliff, further angering fans, who were left with the distinct impression of a player saving himself for his next club.
However, given his career trajectory took him from Real Madrid to a pre-UAE billions Manchester City before retirement, there is little of the ire that Owen feels is directed his way from Reds.
Steven Gerrard is held up as the poster boy for local lad made good having spent the best years of his career at Anfield before a brief and often forgotten farewell lap with LA Galaxy, but he was minutes away from joining Chelsea, at the time one of Liverpool’s biggest rivals, after winning the Champions League in 2005.
Had Gerrard opted for Jose Mourinho’s men, it would have no doubt been seen as the ultimate betrayal by fans – a local who had come through the ranks, leaving for the promise of silver and silverware at a hated enemy.
Therein lies the real mortal sin for academy graduates made good. Leave for a European giant and you might be forgiven, even if your terrace song is scrapped from the records, but wind up at a rival club? That’s the red line in the sand for supporters.
Just ask Sol Campbell.
Tottenham supporters still sing about having a knees-up at Campbell's funeral after he left his boyhood club on a free transfer to link up with Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal.
Having spent 12 years at the club as a man and boy, captaining them to a rare trophy in the 1999 League Cup final, Campbell’s move to Spurs’ hated North London rivals still reverberates today, so much so that last year, the player begged fans to move on.
"I was 26," he said. "That’s not me now. Who stays the same every year or over every five years, let alone 22 years? I’m not 48 making that decision.
"It’s a plea. I want a clean slate. Look into your hearts, look into your souls and give me a clean slate. Take me out of the caricature and see me as a human being."
Whether or not Spurs fans are willing to listen remains unclear, and Arsenal supporters continue to hold a grudge of their own over Ashley Cole’s cross-London move to Chelsea.
Cole’s switch had a grubbier background than most, after he and Chelsea had been found guilty of making contact over a possible move in 2005 without informing Arsenal, only to sign a one-year extension with the Gunners.
The damage was done then however and he left the club the following year for £5m with William Gallas going the other way.
Cole was quickly painted as 'greedy’ by fans and the tabloids, and his autobiography a few years later when he describes nearly crashing his car and "trembling with anger" when he heard of Arsenal’s apparently paltry £55,000 a week contract offer, added plenty of fuel to the fire.
Cole, like Campbell and Owen, remains very much a pariah at the club where he came through the ranks, but Alexander-Arnold will most likely look to McManaman’s trajectory should he make the switch to Madrid.
With his contract talks being played out in private and the player keeping a silence on the matter, there’s much less drama surrounding his potential exit.
Jurgen Klopp’s words of advice to Philip Coutinho may be playing on his mind however.
"Stay here and they will end up building a statue in your honour," Klopp told Coutinho before his move to Barcelona. "Go somewhere else, to Barcelona, to Bayern Munich, to Real Madrid, and you will be just another player."
There’s no guarantee that Alexander-Arnold would be as big a success at the Bernabeu as he is at Anfield and his defensive frailties would certainly come under the microscope more.
Regardless, as long as he avoids a late-career swansong at Old Trafford, he should be able to show up at Anfield for a handy post-retirement gig in the corporate suites. In the end, isn’t that what we all want?
