Rodrigo de Paul's purported move to Leeds United was one which failed to get off the ground last summer.
Initial, cursory conversations were had but Leeds remained rather demure when it came to making any formal approaches.
Simply, Udinese's asking price was too large given the spending Leeds had already committed to.
Not landing De Paul has hardly hindered Leeds United in the Premier League, though. The club go into this weekend's fixture with Arsenal in the top half, a place above the Gunners who occupy 11th.
Leeds have competed with and even beaten the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Leicester City - all of whom have won the Premier League in the last five years.
Creatively, Leeds have been one of the league's most effective, generating the most shots inside the penalty area of any side except Liverpool, as per WhoScored.com.
Marcelo Bielsa's side have also scored more goals than every team outside the top four except Chelsea who have netted 38 times; the same as Leeds.
It is fair to say, Leeds have hardly been wasteful in the final third.
This is in stark contrast to Rodrigo de Paul's current situation with Udinese in Serie A. The Udine outfit are a decidedly less vivacious attacking side than Leeds, scoring 15 goals fewer in the league, but find themselves in the relative safety of 11th.
In Italy's top flight this season, only Henrikh Mkhitaryan can boast the honour of being more creative than De Paul. The Armenian trumps the Argentine in terms of Expected Assists (xA) but De Paul's numbers are staggering for a number of reasons.
Expected Assists measures the likelihood that a given pass will become a goal assist. Therefore, creative players who create multiple chances tend to rank highly in this regard.
This season, De Paul has registered 6.5 xA which means he should have six assists to his name. Instead, he has just one, but this is not the fault of the Argentine playmaker - rather the players he is providing for.
The deficit of 5.5 assists in De Paul's expected return and his actual tally, is mirrored in striker Kevin Lasagna's Expected Goals (xG) underperformance.
Based on the quality of the shots taken by Lasagna, he should have been expected to score just over seven times this season. Instead, he has just two.
Interestingly, Lasagna has been farmed out to Hellas Verona on loan as Udinese attempt to arrest their goalscoring slump and convince De Paul his talents are not wasted.
By way of comparison, Leeds' creativity has been spread across the team much more evenly, although the Whites' leader in xA, Jack Harrison, still finds himself on just 4.2, indicating just how effective De Paul has been in a poorer team.
De Paul could not have been blamed for casting a jealous eye on Leeds' results in the Premier League and questioning what could have been, had he been afforded such attacking freedom.
