When Everton announced that Jack Grealish was joining on a season-long loan from Manchester City, it marked confirmation of a step change in the club's transfer ambitions and activity.
It was impossible to imagine just a year ago the Blues being able to bring in a player of the former Aston Villa and England international's talent and accomplishments.
At that time, the Toffees had once again only just avoided relegation from the Premier League and were playing a brand of very basic, direct long-ball football that would certainly not attract players of Grealish's calibre.
Fast forward twelve months, and Everton have a manager in David Moyes who has returned and already re-shaped the team's tactics. Meanwhile, the club, under new owners, has just completed the most ambitious and successful transfer window in its recent history.
As well as the headline-grabbing deal for Grealish, the Blues have brought in several other players, such as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Tyler Dibling, who represent a real step up in attacking potential.
Dewsbury-Hall was arguably the Toffees' best performer in the last win at Wolves and scored a superb goal running onto a cute lifted pass from Grealish and smashing it home with his favoured left peg.
That goal was a textbook example of the sort of fluid, integrated attacking football with interchanging player formations that would have been unthinkable twelve months ago.
As predicted, since moving to Merseyside, Grealish has been playing in a role that seems much more similar to how he performed at Aston Villa when his career began and before his move to Manchester City.
It is not just his direct contribution that has reshaped the Blues' football; it is also the wider, indirect impact of his presence in the team.
Grealish has the ability to draw opponents to him and then beat them as well as hold onto the ball superbly, using his technical ability, close control, and strength before threading a defence-splitting pass through to a team-mate.
All of these qualities make him, at his best, one of the most dangerous forwards in the Premier League. Stopping him is a very difficult challenge, and the inevitable focus on Grealish has given other Everton players much more freedom and opportunity to excel.
Along with new signing Dewsbury-Hall, another player reveling in the space and chances being created by his new team-mate, is Illman Ndiaye.
Ndiaye was the Toffees' best attacking player last season, largely operating as an orthodox left winger and scoring eleven times, and he attracted interest from other clubs late on in the summer window.
But he is now enjoying a much greater degree of freedom, now largely starting on the right, and is repaying that with two goals already in the Premier League.
If he carries on like this, he will easily surpass his tally from the last campaign and could become the top-level goal-scorer that Everton have been seeking for years.
Having said all this, it is still very early days for this new-look Blues team and there is certainly a long way to go in the Premier League season.
The final analysis will, of course, be decided by the outcome of this campaign, and only then will we know how fully these changes have consistently transformed the club.