Aston Villa and manager Unai Emery are reaping the rewards for seizing the moment to buck the trend that states the January transfer window is high-risk and rarely offers value.
And if proof were needed, it came in the vital 3-0 win at Brighton that pushed Villa towards the Premier League's top four with an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest at Wembley and a Champions League quarter-final with Paris St-Germain already on a packed agenda.
Villa's second-half goals all came from players who arrived at Villa Park in January, the perfect advert for a fiercely ambitious manager in Emery and the progressive thinking of co-owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens.