There was a point this summer when there was considerable unhappiness at Manchester City sporting director Txiki Begiristain.
The club had sold fan favourite Oleksandr Zinchenko promising a replacement, and then refused to pay the asking price for their No.1 (and only realistic) target to replace him, getting gazumped by Premier League rivals Chelsea to leave themselves looking even shorter in a position where they have always felt short.
Add in the failure to deny that Bernardo Silva was for sale in the wake of a very public pursuit from Barcelona and some tempers were boiling over.
By then of course, it had been months since Begiristain and City had landed the deal of the window by convincing Erling Haaland to come to Manchester rather than Madrid or Barcelona and paying a comparatively paltry £51m to sign him from Dortmund.