Someone hand Todd Boehly some paper and a pen, notes need to be taken. Chelsea are being shown up on and off the pitch by Arsenal and it's not even got to the second summer window.
Whereas Mikel Arteta's men have spent largely smart, without much failure or risk, Chelsea's owners have been scattergun and without plan. These are clubs at different stages of their development, that is to be said, but it is nevertheless a stark reality check.
Not only did the Gunners beat their London rivals on the pitch twice this year, continuing a recent run of success at Stamford Bridge as well as banishing memories of Romelu Lukaku steamrolling them at the Emirates Stadium last September, they are proving to be business experts off it.
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Arsenal followed a plan through tough moments under Arteta and have gotten the reward for it. Their transfer model was successful with Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus forming key parts of their unexpected title charge and now they have secured their key star on a long-term deal.
Bukayo Saka, at 21, is now the best paid player at the club and has a five-year deal. With interest from Chelsea and Manchester City cropping up as he approached two-years remaining on his prior deal, the youngster has been rewarded thoroughly for his output. Expect Martin Odegaard and Ben White to follow suit; Aaron Ramsdale has already had his own extension announced.
Chelsea, on the other hand, are not only behind in the footballing project sense but also in terms of quality on the field. Their transfers are either yet to come off or have failed in recent years. It is at this stage that the differing timescales becomes relevant once more but in Saka's contract there is an immediate message and lesson to learn.
Whilst Mason Mount enters the summer more likely to leave his boyhood club than to stay, Arsenal have their own academy graduate tied down and in-place to thrive for years to come. Mount is three years older than Saka but their positions aren't incomparable.
The 24-year-old is a two-time club player of the season winner, an England international, an established Premier League player with output to back it up and has won the Champions League, creating the winning goal. His form this season has been the worst of his career and has come at the least ideal time, as his current contract runs down to a key stage.
Arsenal nipped the Saka situation in the bud. Just before he entered the last 12-months he is now set until his prime years at the Emirates Stadium. Mount faces a Chelsea exit this summer if he can't come to an agreement. One club has made it work and the other hasn't - yet. Unlike the situation in which Boehly and the new owners came into, this is not one that they can say was totally unavoidable.
Where Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger faced much larger uncertainty, clouded by the sanctions on the club from the UK government, pending takeover finalisation and pre-existing talks over leaving that had been in the pipeline before the owners took over, Mount has been in full focus since their arrival.
Reece James, Trevoh Chalobah and Armando Broja were all secured on feature-length contracts. Senior players were signed on similarly extended deals over the summer with Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly also offered mammoth amounts. Then the next wave of signings were given incentive based contracts instead of huge lump sums.
Mount, stuck in the middle, has been a product of the scattergun approach, change of ownership and also wanting to weigh up his options. Had his form been better then perhaps finding an agreement would have been easier. Either way, to face the prospect of losing a player that finished as the club's top scorer last season is nothing short of embarrassing.
To make matters worse, it is Premier League rivals that are front of the queue to sign him. Arsenal, as proven, are becoming the efficient, smart and functioning club that Chelsea can right now only aspire and wish to be. They are understandably keen to add a player that fits their model.
There would be nothing worse than for Chelsea to lose Mount to another London team. Even the thought of him playing for Liverpool is a hard one for many to stomach. It would not only prove how valuable he is, as shown by the crowd of teams lining up for his signature, it would also show incompetence to do nothing about the imminent danger of it becoming a reality.
Mauricio Pochettino may have a chance to influence proceedings but won't have long to do so. Chelsea have a soft sales deadline of June 30 to better paint their accounting results. The new manager will want as little uncertainty as possible heading into the pre-season tour several weeks later. The clock is ticking and Mount's future hangs in the balance.
Chelsea, a club in major transition and with little trace of identity or culture, cannot afford to lose out on a player that symbolises so much. To lose him to a contract mishap and not significant pressure from other clubs would prove to be the most regrettable and avoidable error of the owners' tenure so far.
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