Not for the first time, Swansea City are preparing for a summer with plenty of moving parts.
Contracts, new investment, a shake-up at boardroom level - there's likely to be plenty to digest over the coming weeks, and Swansea's success next term will depend on how they decide to navigate their way through it all.
Having finished three points adrift of the top six, there are clearly some real foundations to build on. Russell Martin himself has seemingly made a point of stressing how much potential he believes is in this squad.
But, for any player, succeeding for a Swansea City side in the Championship brings a mixture of optimism and trepidation for the Jack Army. Optimism that a return to the Premier League perhaps isn't so far away after all. Trepidation that a bigger club may come along and scoop up their brightest talent.
Daniel James, Oli McBurnie, Joe Rodon, Connor Roberts and, most recently, Flynn Downes, have all followed that pattern, and one could argue that none of them have been as successful at this level as current striker Joel Piroe.
The Dutchman signed off his second season in SA1 by taking his goal tally to 20 for the second Championship campaign in a row.
It's a run of form that's simply bound to attract attention, as Martin himself knows.
“I was worried last summer,” conceded Martin, when asked if he feared other clubs taking note.
“It worries me a bit more he’s only got a year left on his contract. That sort of stuff we need to avoid in the future really. Hopefully that’s the sort of stuff Andy (Coleman) can come in and really help to have an influence on and impact on, because we shouldn’t be sitting here with our top goalscorer with a year left on his contract because it makes us more vulnerable than maybe we should or could be.
“He’s a brilliant young man, brilliant footballer, it was a really apt way for the game to finish. He does that and scores 20 goals again.
“I’d love to keep him. I don’t think he’s in a rush to leave, I really don’t.
“I think he understands and respects his development in the process he’s been working with and how much the style of the team really suits him.
“I think he has a real awareness of that and so does his dad, who looks after him and his career.
“Will there be interest? One hundred per cent. But if Joel leaves it has to be for an amount of money that really makes a difference to the club. I think everyone will agree on that, and it means we can try to find someone to replace him, because to score the amount of goals that he has... not just that, what he brings to the team, how he behaves on and off the pitch, amazing.
“I love him and hope that we can keep him. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Piroe himself has, perhaps unsurprisingly, said very little about where he sees his future, but has previously indicated he's happy in south Wales.
Speaking after the close of the last summer transfer window, he said: "As I have said before, you do not know what the future can hold, but I am enjoying my time playing for Swansea.
“Of course, I am happy to be here, I have seen and read a lot of things, but I am really happy to play here because this club and the fans have given me a lot of chances to show what I can do.
“I am really thankful for that. For sure, I want to help the club in any way I can.”
Martin will surely be hoping his affection for the club remains just as strong this time around. Twenty-goal-a-season strikers don't exactly grow on trees, so from a footballing perspective, keeping him is an absolute no-brainer.
But the realist in him will know that the nature of the transfer window can erode away even the most genuine of public soundbites. There's a financial reality to consider at every club. At Swansea it's a reality that very often brings everything else crashing down.
The sale of Downes plugged a financial gap last time, and an injection of what's estimated to be around £10m from the recent fresh investment might yet have a similar effect. But with one year left on the Dutchman's current deal, the club will be very aware of the uncomfortable possibility of losing him for nothing, which would go dead against the business model around buying and selling talent that the owners are, rightly or wrongly, trying to create.
Should Piroe fire Swansea into the Premier League, of course, it's a prospect that's a lot less scary. But no one at this moment in time would place the Swans among the favourites to challenge at the top next term.
Like some sort of Saturday night game show contestant, the Swans board will feel as though they're watching the cash pot diminish before their very eyes as they agonise over what to do next. Do they stick or twist? Take home the winnings now, or gamble it all for the grand prize?
I's question that might well be effectively answered by the player himself anyway.
Martin too might be torn, particularly given he's likely to be operating with a meagre budget once again. The earlier a sale gets done, the bigger the price tag. The bigger the price tag, the more cash available to reinvest in the squad.
That's the theory anyway.
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