Raheem Sterling. Kalidou Koulibaly. Marc Cucurella. Wesley Fofana. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Denis Zakaria. It's an impressive list of new additions to the Chelsea first-team squad – and let's not forget the number of talented young players recruited from Premier League rivals and beyond at no little expense.
It's why the first transfer window of the Todd Boehly/Clearlake Capital ownership can only be viewed as a success; genuine quality has been added and a number of fringe players with no long-term value to were moved on. Yet the route taken to reach that endpoint was far from straightforward.
The summer window was like no other for Chelsea, at least in recent memory. With the measured and sometimes frustrating Marina Granovskaia no longer at the helm of the club's transfer business, it was left to Boehly to enter the fray. The American had no grace period, he was straight in at the deep end of the European game.
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Club executives were dined with. Super agents were met. Players were spoken with. Boehly can't be accused of not putting in the work nor racking up the air miles in his private jet. His effort and desire to give Thomas Tuchel a squad that can compete at the top level this term is beyond question.
Mistakes were made along the way; that was inevitable. But through force of will – and admittedly plenty of cash – Boehly brought in signing after signing for Tuchel. It's now on the German coach to make it all work, to challenge for honours during the remainder of the 2022/23 campaign.
Boehly can then sit back, although he won't be able to relax. There are new contracts to negotiate for key players – Reece James and Mason Mount are top of the agenda on that front – and then the billionaire and co-owners Behdad Eghbali and Jose E. Feliciano will come to arguably their biggest decision in charge of Chelsea.
And that is who they appoint as the club's sporting director.
It's not something the new ownership group can afford to get wrong. The decision is too important, the impact too wide-ranging on the future of the club. Whoever is brought in will need to build for the here and now but also plan ahead and piece together a long-term vision for the first-team squad and academy sides.
football.london understands Boehly, Eghbali and Feliciano hoped to have someone in the role ahead of the January transfer window. Michael Edwards was the first choice after his outstanding work at Liverpool, where he worked closely alongside Jurgen Klopp and oversaw the Reds' recruitment until the end of last season.
Chelsea sounded out Edwards over the summer and he was understood to have been hugely impressed with the club's proposal. But he reiterated his stance of taking a year away from the game and spending time with his family. As things stand, that has not changed.
Other names have been mentioned, including Paul Mitchell of Monaco and Andrea Berta of Atletico Madrid. However, neither was going to be attainable this summer with the transfer window open and Boehly was acting as Chelsea's interim sporting director either way.
But for the excellent players brought to Chelsea by Boehly, there was an inescapable sense of frenzy about much of the Blues' business. Too many players and clubs were sounded out over potential transfers and it was difficult to get a clear idea as to what Chelsea wanted from signings.
That will have to change going forward and the Blues will have to work a little more shrewdly in the market; Boehly, Eghbali and Feliciano certainly won't be able to spend more than £270million on signings year in, year out. With a top-level sporting director, they shouldn't have to either.
The efforts of Boehly this summer coupled with Chelsea's riches have put the club on firm ground after a huge period of uncertainty at the end of the Roman Abramovich era. Yet what comes next will perhaps be of even greater importance as the Blues attempt to return to the pinnacle of the European game.
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