Emmanuel Adebayor's arrival at Manchester City means Mark Hughes has invested an astonishing £80 million on four players in the space of 46 days.That works out at around £1.7m a day and underlines why the club which finished an underwhelming 10th in the table last season deserves the right to be taken seriously this time round.
Yet while Hughes has clearly had no trouble spending the money entrusted to him by City's Abu Dhabi billionaire owners, his real problems surely start now.
Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez and Adebayor are all quality world-class goalscorers and each one will provide City with a serious attacking threat.
All three are at the peak of their game and are capable of destroying opposition defences in an instant flash of brilliance.
But none of them has moved to Eastlands to warm the bench and unless Hughes employs a three-man attack - which few observers expect him to do - then one of the trio is going to be left bitterly disappointed.
And that is when Hughes's man-management skills are going be tested to the absolute limit.
Conduct a straw poll with City fans about who they want leading the attack on the opening day of the campaign at Blackburn next month and most will plump for Tevez and Adebayor.
It is a £50m partnership which whets the appetite and no wonder, because this time last year City took on Faroe Islands minnows Streymur in the Uefa Cup with Darius Vassell, who has been released, and Jo, now on loan at Everton, in attack.
City's pursuit of Adebayor is intriguing because the Arsenal forward has not endeared himself to many at the Emirates Stadium, ever since an unsavoury pay dispute last summer.
But Hughes believes the beanpole Togo international, who is just as deadly in the air as he is getting behind opposition defences, will form an instant bond with Tevez, whose arrival has changed the footballing landscape in Manchester with United forced to take their neighbours seriously at last.
Unlike Adebayor, Tevez does not lead the line as a conventional forward. The Argentina international likes to drop deeper behind a leading frontman and get on the end of crosses.
If they gel, then Santa Cruz, Craig Bellamy and Benjani may be sitting on the bench a little more than they want to this season.
If they don't then expect fireworks because Adebayor and Tevez have proved in the past that they not going to be a 'take it on the chin for the good of the club' kind of substitute.
But for now at least, Adebayor is just glad his future is settled.
"I can't wait to play for City's fans and show them what I can do," said Adebayor.
"I was born to play football and that is what I want to do. I have come here to make history for this club and those supporters.
"It's what the chairman and the manager told me that they want too and I can't wait to get started."
