Cardiff City's pursuit of a striker in the summer transfer window became a protracted saga.
Fans were nervous about the lack of goals within the squad and while City had bolstered their squad elsewhere, the lack of frontmen was a growing and alarming concern as the window hurtled towards its conclusion.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Tottenham youngster Kion Etete shot onto the radar and became City's first striker signing. A relative unknown, certainly at Championship level, but he brought a height and physicality that was sorely lacking in Cardiff's forward line.
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Suffice to say, it's been a tricky start. The team he joined for £500,000 is now scrapping at the foot of the table, the manager who brought him in has been sacked and his season has been stop-start owning to an ankle injury. It's been less than ideal.
"I've found the Championship a lot more challenging," says Etete, who spent half of last season on loan in League Two with Northampton and the other half in League One with Cheltenham.
"The two leagues I was at before, I felt like there wasn't much difference between the two apart from technicality, but I think the strength was worse, harder in League Two.
"The Championship has been a massive step up in quality and physicality in terms of strength and running we do. It's really fast-paced.
"Last season, I had been on two loans, kept stepping up the leagues and I wanted to keep doing that. This is the way I do it. So I am just going to think about myself. I thought it was time for me to move on (from Tottenham).
"I had a few meetings. Morro [Steve Morison] really enticed me. They showed me clips of what they really liked about my game. They also showed me clips of how I can improve. So I thought they put a lot of effort into it and showed me how they could make me better as a player.
"My injury obviously set me back. After the World Cup now it's time to press on. We all need to band together and put the work in."
He has had a good schooling at Tottenham. He joined Spurs in 2019 and spent three years there, with his final season seeing him go out and get some valuable senior experience in the English Football League.
He scored nine goals across two loan spells last term and values his experience in the loan system highly. But he also credits Spurs with much of his learning, including an academy coach and being able to observe one of the best strikers in the world in Harry Kane up close and personal.
"Some of the coaches, Paul Bracewell the most," he says when asked who his biggest influences at Spurs were. "Under him I developed the most in my game, technically. The rest of the staff out on the pitch as well.
"At times I trained with the first team. It was always good to go over there and you see where you aspire to be.
"It was a joy to watch Harry Kane train. Just take notes of how he is doing stuff. You are always going to lean by watching. You know he is an unreal striker, so you learn from just watching."
Etete, 21, has failed to score in any of his nine competitive appearances for the Bluebirds, all of which have come from the bench.
However, he played the full 90 minutes against a near-full strength Aston Villa side in the Peter Whittingham Memorial Match last week and was the best player on the pitch.
He came up against England internationals Tyrone Mings and Callum Chambers, as well as the highly-rated Ezri Konsa, and came out on top. He scored two cracking goals, sweeping one in from the edge of the box and latching on to a perfect Morgan Wigley cross to nod in another, as City ran out 3-1 winners.
"It's all about knowing the players you're up against, their strengths, how they want to manage you and then doing the opposite. Make it difficult for them," he said of that match.
"If people want to fight, like Tyrone Mings, he is strong, you stand off him. Sometimes give it back. It's about mixing up your play.
"I enjoy stuff like that a lot. I like being challenged. I like the deep end of football, really. Because you'll only get better."
Cardiff fans certainly hope he gets better and goes from strength to strength. On the evidence of that Villa game, there appears to be a player there, we just need to see it more often and he needs to be afforded the chance to shine.
"He scored two really good goals, he could have scored another one with a lob. That is something we know he has the potential to do. That's why he is in the club," Mark Hudson said in his Thursday press conference.
"It's one thing against the best, but can he do it every week? That's something we ask every player. It was an exciting game for him, the output was excellent."
One thing is for sure Cardiff need their forwards to start scoring. They are the lowest-scoring team in the division and, Callum Robinson aside, have very few Championship goals in the squad.
Hudson said the club would address the dearth of goals in-house during the World Cup break and Etete has noticed a difference on the training ground in the last few weeks.
With the January transfer window looming, the inevitable clamour for another striker will inevitably rear its head again if the goals continue to dry up. However Etete wants to prove that Cardiff already have a goalscorer in the building and plans to start showing them that sooner rather than later.
"I think it has been addressed in the way we approach training," Etete says of the goalscoring. "The finishing and the objectives of training were changed for the better and there are more goals going in.
"So I think that's how we've changed it, but we will see on Saturday.
"Everyone, all the other strikers I'm with, no one means to miss. We are all trying to score in the first place. It's not through lack of effort. We just need that little bit of luck to get the ball rolling."
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