Tottenham Hotspur fell to defeat in the FA Cup last month – against holders Manchester City – and Ange Postecoglou's hopes of securing silverware in the first year of his tenure now hinge on the Premier League.
Pragmaticism can be disheartening but even the most optimistic Spurs supporters will admit that the league title might be out of reach this season, table-toppers Liverpool seven points clear of the London club, Manchester City two points behind with a game in hand.
Crucially, Postecoglou has triumphed in breathing life back into the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and has made a marked improvement on a squad that had fallen by the wayside last year.
Jurgen Klopp, for example, required four years of progress before finally tasting a trophy on Merseyside; Pep Guardiola needed a year to stamp his brand onto Manchester City.
The key factor has been ridding Spurs of the deadwood that had weighed the team down like an anchor, the sunlit shore tantalisingly out of reach.
On that note, it's hardly surprising that one of the Australian's first ports of call was to wave goodbye to Tanguy Ndombele, a player at the very epicentre of Tottenham's recent troubles.
The record signing of Tanguy Ndombele
It was July 2019 and Spurs were still nursing the wounds of the month prior, reaching the Champions League final in extraordinary circumstances before falling to defeat against Liverpool.
It was the beginning of the end for Mauricio Pochettino, who sought to make resounding improvements to his talented team, unaware that he had entered the final months of his reign.
Indeed, in an attempt to assuage the loss, Tottenham completed the club-record £63m signing of midfielder Tanguy Ndombele from Lyon, the 22-year-old only joining the French cub in a £7m deal 12 months before.
It was a necessary addition, with Lucas Moura the last player to arrive in north London 18 months before. Tottenham were endowed with first-rate players in Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen, Heung-min Son, Dele Alli, Hugo Lloris… the list goes on.
But such players needed silverware and Ndombele was viewed as the marquee, honour-gleaning addition to take Spurs to new heights, praised as "potentially the most complete box-to-box midfielder in the world" by The Athletic's Jack Pitt-Brooke after signing.
Passing
Concentration
Dribbling
Aerial duels
To say that Ndombele had flattered to deceive would make a mockery of the idiom. It is quite possibly one of the worst pieces of business forged under the chairmanship of Daniel Levy.
Delight to "disgrace"
Ndombele completed 91 appearances for Tottenham before departing last summer, scoring ten goals and supplying nine assists for his teammates.
Hardly shameful numbers, but then they do not tell the story of his lack of energy, absence of application and inconsistency. Fitness issues have plagued the Frenchman's career and one source close to the issue at Tottenham commented that for such an "incredibly talented" player, his inability to do the basics was bewildering.
At his best – the side of the coin that Tottenham saw and were initially enticed by – Ndombele is a masterful No. 8 with technical brilliance, defensive strength and unstoppable progressive surges when in possession. Essentially, he had the raw physical attributes to emulate an iconic Premier League phenomenon like Yaya Toure.
But this failure to combine the cogs together proved damning and after joining Napoli on loan for the 2022/23 campaign and after starting just eight times in Serie A as Luciano Spaletti's side won the Scudetto, Postecoglou seemed to make the swift decision to ship him on.
Given that he is now valued at just £7m by Football Transfers, Spurs might lose around £56m on their investment if Gala choose to snap him up for good by the end of the season, but with just four starts in the Turkish Super Lig thus far, that doesn't look likely.
And so he sailed away, signing for Turkish Super Lig giants Galatasaray (on loan with an option to buy) alongside Colombian defender Davinson Sanchez.
Ndombele was worse than Davinson Sanchez
Sanchez moved to Turkey on a permanent £13m transfer and there are definitely similarities to the stuttering Spurs career of Ndombele, now plying his trade beside him at RAMS Park.
Similarly thriving before joining Tottenham, Sanchez won Ajax's Player of the Year during the 2016/17 term and moved to England for a club-record £42m, with all the trappings of a world-beating centre-half for years to come.
Branded "one of the worst players" in the Premier League side's recent history by pundit Jamie O'Hara, Sanchez only managed to start eight times in the top-flight last season despite Tottenham's woes – shipping 63 goals, only the three relegated sides and newly-promoted Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest yielded higher concession rates.
Also 27, Sanchez is at least thriving in Turkey, impressing across his 20 appearances with two goals and two assists, albeit missing a big portion of the campaign with injury.
He also earned his keep across the first few seasons at Tottenham – and at £42m didn't cost quite as much either – but was perhaps a victim of circumstance, injuries scattered across his time in London not exactly helping his case either.
It is no coincidence that Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy oversaw the sales of both Ndombele and Sanchez last summer as Postecoglou sought to shape his squad.
Eric Dier's winter exit to Bayern Munich further underlines this new incisiveness, rebuilding a team that had performed admirably in the past but was in dire need of more than a bit of tinkering.
Ndombele's acquisition once held such promise, sent a frisson of excitement down the N17 as Pochettino continued to show ambition.
It came to nought and Ndombele will be used as the touchstone for dismal transfer business at Spurs for years to come, a reminder that this new, shrewd approach must not slip, lest the state of affairs devolve once again.