Erik ten Hag is fond of saying Manchester United are going "in the right direction" on the pitch since his arrival as manager in the summer, and the last 24 hours of the January transfer window were evidence that progress has been made off it as well.
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Deadline day on Tuesday began with news that midfielder Christian Eriksen, a player used more than any other by Ten Hag during the first half of the season, would be ruled out for at least three months with an ankle injury but it ended on a better note, with a club announcement that Marcel Sabitzer has been signed on loan from Bayern Munich to compensate for the loss.
It's a stark contrast to January 2022 when interim manager Ralf Rangnick wanted a striker, but didn't get one.
"I spoke to the board and told them: 'Shouldn't we at least speak and analyse and find if we can at least get a player, on loan or a permanent deal?' In the end the answer was no," Rangnick said in May, shortly before his spell in charge came to an end. "Maybe they didn't want to do any winter [business]. I believe that we should have tried in those 48 hours. Forty-eight hours is 48 hours. It might have been at least worth to try and internally discuss it. We didn't.
"The answer was no and that was it. We were still in three competitions: the FA Cup, the Champions League, and at the time were fourth in the league."
Rangnick wasn't happy and still believes that the lack of options up front contributed to a disastrous second half of the season under his management.
Like Rangnick, Ten Hag expressed concern in the January window that the squad -- following Cristiano Ronaldo's departure and injuries to Eriksen and Donny van de Beek -- would not be able to cope with the demands of four competitions. This time, though, the club listened and -- crucially -- acted.
Striker Wout Weghorst was signed on loan to replace Ronaldo while a deal for Sabitzer was put together inside 12 hours on deadline day after scans revealed the extent of Eriksen's injury. United insist the Sabitzer deal, and the speed with which it was done, shows the club's recruitment department -- heavily criticised in the past -- is now working as it should.
As soon as it became clear Eriksen would be sidelined for months rather than weeks, the team led by football director John Murtough, deputy football director Andy O'Boyle, director of data science Dominic Jordan and head of recruitment operations Steve Brown activated an "emergency protocol" designed to quickly identify realistic targets in problem positions. On Monday, Ten Hag was presented with a list of 10 names -- considered to be potentially available and deemed to be of sufficient quality -- but when he sat down for his scheduled news conference at 12 p.m. GMT on Tuesday, he still had no idea whether he would get someone on board.