Chelsea thought they were on a straight road towards rebuilding Stamford Bridge when they cleared a fiendishly sensitive obstacle, last year.
They needed to buy neighbouring buildings first set up to house disabled veterans returning from World War I, which had been home to Armed Forces heroes for over 100 years, the latest of whom didn’t want to leave.
The purchase of the Stoll Mansions was achieved at the right price, without the public embarrassment of courageous veterans feeling turfed out, and the club moved on to other fiendish difficulties.
A development site including a listed building, a cemetery, railway lines on two sides and even statutory restrictions put in place by Henry VIII, protecting the view he enjoyed from a nearby mound, all the way to St Paul’s Cathedral.