West Ham United were battered and bruised after a gruelling run of winless form but have rebounded like the champions that they are in recent matches, picking up emphatic victories over Brentford and Everton in the Premier League.
Crisis averted? Unequivocally. West Ham are in a promising position heading into the business end of the campaign with a talented squad and a manager in David Moyes who has engineered every scintilla of success across recent years.
Declan Rice was sold in the summer but West Ham have reinvested wisely and are now levels above last season's domestic performance, also into the Europa League last 16.
The new additions all look to be successes, with this improved accuracy in the market a staple of Moyes' triumph at the London Stadium.
He hasn't always got it right though, with Nikola Vlasic possibly sat at the nadir of the club's transfer business over the past few years.
The fee West Ham paid for Nikola Vlasic
Back in August 2021, West Ham secured the signing of Vlasic from CSKA Moskow for an initial £27m fee with the possibility of a further £8m in add-ons.
The Croatia international, who was 23 at the time, had previously featured in the Premier League for Everton but hadn't made his mark in turbulent circumstances, and fancied a second shot at the division.
His arrival severed any hopes that Jesse Lingard would return to east London after his emphatic sojourn in the capital, but after posting 12 goals and six assists in Russia there was a belief that he could take the Hammers to the next level.
The 26-year-old failed miserably.
Nikola Vlasic's earnings at West Ham
Vlasic featured 31 times for West Ham before leaving with his tail between his legs, scoring once and supplying two assists, principally starting from a left wing role and being branded "wasteful" by The Athletic's Roshane Thomas.
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Unable to produce performances of the energy, passion and influence requisite for success under Moyes' leadership, Vlasic averaged just 0.5 key passes, 8.6 passes, 0.6 tackles, 0.5 dribbles and 2.2 successful duels per game, as per Sofascore.
It was a colossal failure of an acquisition, especially considering that Vlasic took home a pretty penny at £70k-per-week – which was £10k-per-week higher than stars such as Rice and Jarrod Bowen who both took home £60k at the time.
Per appearance
£967,000
Per goal
£30m
Per assist
£15m
It's grim reading, especially considering Rice would claim the first of successive West Ham Player of the Year awards en route a a gargantuan transfer that handed Moyes a war chest to spend on shaping the squad last summer, having clinched the Europa Conference League.
Of course, all this is without taking into consideration any potential add-ons, though Vlasic's career with West Ham was hardly conducive to success and thus it's unlikely he triggered any such clauses.
Moyes will look back on his tenure at West Ham with great pride, but the addition of Vlasic is one of the misfires along the way, there's no doubting that.