Whisper it quietly, but the no-brain, scattergun, Football Manager playing Chelsea owners have had a really good start to this window. It won't be popular to say so, selling players that won the Champions League two years ago to league rivals tends not to look brilliant, but it was necessary.
If you want a true rebuild then the best way to do that is to actually tear down the structure in place at the start, not half-heartedly tweak with it. That is, almost inversely, where Chelsea went wrong last year.
The Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital administration had plans to get started with their grand, sustainable and modern vision for the football club but were trying to do it with one of the most uniquely ran set-ups in the world, all whilst coming out of a period of uncertainty under UK government sanctions, after 19 years of unprecedented success and with a brazen approach unseen or unliked by many.
The bullish American entrepreneurial takeover was never going to hit home quite like a Russian oligarch with the sole intention of winning. These men understood what business success was in a different way. Football is a big business that operates like a small business with results like neither and Boehly-Clearlake understood just parts of that.
Their footballing intelligence has been developed on the job over 12 months of harsh, harsh realities. These are not dumb men in suits, as many paint them to be. Clearlake's rapid rise in USA as a private equity firm under Behdad Eghbali is one of close attention and serious results.
Boehly watches over Elridge Industries with a casting glance of yet more impressive figures and has investments and added stakes in some of the most successful sporting franchises out there. It is perceived wisdom that this cannot possibly amount to footballing success.
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Early signs would largely confirm those thoughts and scepticism is entirely understandable after months of frustration and difference. Entering their second summer they come from a point of weakness having finished 12th and spent over £600million ($762m) but are much better placed to operate now.
The recruitment department is in place to carry out large-scale change that has been needed and with the pressure on from the hard, Darkest Peruvian stares of Mauricio Pochettino, they have delivered so far. As the Argentine was announced as the new head coach last month there was an unspoken understanding that this meant business.
The 51-year-old needs things his way from a coaching perspective and having learned the hard way that handing a roster of 33 players in January to even the best coaches will not bring success. More does not equal more all the time and when it comes to complex squad dynamics at an unstable and faltering club, now founded on the shaky element of uncertainty, it is a recipe for disaster.
Whereas last summer the approach was to double down, invest in the squad that had finished a distant third but impressed enough at points to lift two trophies, reach both domestic cup finals and show glimmers of a machine capable of being a third horse in a strong top of the table race, this summer had to be different.
The cracks had appeared from last year, the players that had failed to take the club towards the summit of the Premier League over six years yet again fell short in making any gains on those above them and the dissatisfaction became evident as things crumbled.
This is not the team to continue repairing and hoping with, it's the one to break apart and forget. Now, less than three weeks into the transfer window and there have been a much-needed six departures from the 2022/23 squad already. Add in the two loans that made minimal tangible impact and it's up to eight.
Jorginho was sold in January, kickstarting the move away from the 2021 Thomas Tuchel squad into a braver, bolder and riskier Pochettino shape. In the space of six months, seven of those that played matches last term had moved on. £218m ($277m) has come in and some progress has been made in repairing the damages of last summer's window.
Kalidou Koulibaly didn't last a full year, Kai Havertz's experiment was cut short, Mateo Kovacic is no longer and Edouard Mendy leaves a shadow of his former figure. Although such exits are hard to comprehend, especially when £100million ($124m) was recouped for players going to league rivals, they only make sense.
To stand by and hope once more would be blind faith based on nothing more than unreasonable gambling. There is a large enough sample size to say that, even though the Chelsea of the past four years has not been a stable place built to dominate, there has been enough mediocrity to cut ties swiftly and surely.
To do this quickly has benefits that are plentiful. Not only does it ensure Pochettino can better plan for pre-season and beyond without losing cogs of his blueprint along the way, but it also means that fresh and unwanted methods aren't needed for those he doesn't see fit.
Could he turn Havertz into a demonic striker capable of rattling in plenty of goals a season? Maybe, but if he's willing to turn to Arsenal inside weeks of interest then perhaps the parting of the ways is beneficial. For £65million ($82m), Chelsea are getting a serious fee for someone with 19 league goals in three years.
Can Kovacic become Pep Guardiola's next showpiece midfield monster? Quite probably, but after spending months on the backburner preparing for the World Cup only to pack in his season early with diminishing returns and fitness issues, Chelsea are once again playing for possibilities and saving face.
There is no pride being salvaged in shipping off players in this manner, though. It's just being totally swallowed with an acceptance of widespread negligence over years of decisions. Some have been born from Boehly-Clearlake, some have not. It's not a time for blaming and naming, just for moving on and starting afresh.
So, with the demands and pressure of Financial Fair Play adding to the need for a firesale, just how well has all of this been carried out? The tick-over from June to July saw not just the official arrival of Pochettino but also the first deadline day of the summer for Chelsea.
Their soft barrier of June 30 was to help best restore any monetary ground they could make up ahead of accounting the 2022/23 figures. When you spend mountains and succeed little as well as miss out on European qualification, the numbers look bleak. The wages are high, the efficiency is low and the feeling is lower.
Clearing out such matters and doing it before pre-season thoughts truly start is nothing more than a success. Chelsea have given themselves a pot of funds to dip into for summer incomings that are focused.
There has been just one main signing so far with Christopher Nkunku joining but Nicolas Jackson's arrival as an unknown striker is fresh. Moises Caicedo is the main target for the rest of the summer and a new goalkeeper may well be needed too.
Outside of that the continuation of shedding players will go on. The foundation has been laid and no such mad panic in pre-season will be needed after a mat of exits kick things off last month. Christian Pulisic, Hakim Ziyech, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Romelu Lukaku and Callum Hudson-Odoi all need new homes but the process of moving them on has been started.
Instead of entering July without any money, financial pressure drowning the club, too many players to count and no hope, the active exodus has given reason to believe that things are changing for the better of the club. Mason Mount will land another large chunk of cash in the Chelsea in-tray when he leaves, that saga won't be dragging on throughout the summer, Pochettino has a group he can prepare for.
It may not have looked possible to do such overarching business in a short space of time and although the PR is poor as only errors have led to being in this position, Chelsea have made an effective start to the window.
It isn't the flashy incomings of Arsenal or Liverpool, the big name signings and rumours of Old Trafford, but it is just what was needed.
