When Cristiano Ronaldo made his sensational return to Manchester United last summer, it was billed as the final piece in the jigsaw for a club seeking to rediscover its former glories.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had secured a second-place finish in the Premier League and with big-money acquisitions Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane also coming in, a push for league title number 21 and the first since 2013 was being considered as a realistic possibility.
But six months on, Solskjaer has been sacked and Ronaldo is enduring his longest goal drought in over a decade as the Red Devils crave consistency, struggle to find the net and toil for a top-four position.