Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's departure from Arsenal was finally confirmed on Tuesday night - with the former captain the latest in a long line of big earners to be ditched since Mikel Arteta took charge at the club.
While it was a disappointing transfer window in terms of incomings, Arsenal did manage to shift a lot of fringe players.
The likes of Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Pablo Mari were farmed out on loan while the Gunners also offloaded Aubameyang and Sead Kolasinac on a permanent basis.
Getting Aubameyang's bloated salary off the books should give Arteta plenty of scope to continue his ambitious rebuilding project in the summer transfer window.
And he might not be the last big earner that Arteta gets rid of before his time in north London is up.
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Since Arteta returned to the Emirates back in December 2019, the Spaniard has seemingly made it a mission to shift the majority of the Gunners top earners off the wage bill.
According to Sportrac in 2019, Aubameyang's £200,000-a-week salary was only behind Mesut Ozil's enormous £350k pay packet in Arsenal's salary ranks.
Both of those have now left the club after Ozil was unceremoniously frozen out by Arteta and dumped last January - a scenario which is eerily similar to the one that has just played out with Aubameyang.
While those two were in a league of their own when it comes to earnings in north London, there are plenty of other big hitters who have been axed under Arteta's premiership.
David Luiz and Hector Bellerin were both earning in excess of £100k-a-week, but both struggled to warrant such an excessive wage.
With their performances often erratic and inconsistent, it wasn't a surprise to see both offloaded - although, theoretically, Bellerin still has one year remaining on his Gunners contract and could return to the club once his loan spell at Real Betis comes to an end in the summer.
Kolasinac was also reportedly earning £100k-a-week before the Gunners tore up his contract last month and Greek defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos was said to be earning £92k-a-week prior to Arsenal cancelling his deal last January.
While there are still a host of big earners still at the club, such as Alexandre Lacazette (£182k), Nicolas Pepe (£140k) and Bernd Leno (£100k), there is a chance that more will be sacrificed in the summer.
Arsenal are likely to be busy once again in the transfer market at the end of the season.
The Gunners were desperate to acquire a new striker in January to help fire them to a top-four finish in the Premier League.
But they were pipped to the signature of Dusan Vlahovic by Juventus and failed to source an adequate replacement.
Arteta had hinted at the start of the month that Arsenal were only prepared to sign players who would "take them to the next level" - but some fans are concerned that their lack of activity in January could seriously hamper the club's hopes of ending a five-year Champions League exile.
"It's what we planned, but the market is difficult, it's complicated," the Arsenal chief said at the beginning of January.
"We knew that but it's a lot to manage and we have to make the right decisions with players that we believe are going to really help us and try to bring in ones that can take us to the next level.
"We are certainly trying, but I don't know if we're going to be able to do it. Let's see, it's not only our intention, but a lot of facts that are needed to happen.
"Players that come here have to be able to take us to the next level. We already have a level, and we want to see much better standards than we already have, and that is how we’re going to recruit."
