Stoke City will have a competitive budget in the Championship this summer, freed from the worst constraints of a three-year Financial Fair Play cycle and having pocketed £15m for Harry Souttar in January.
But there is a lesson from the last couple of years that Alex Neil and his recruitment team will take forward into negotiations, certain that the club cannot fall back into the kind of period from which it has just escaped.
Stoke have to remain acutely aware of the value of players, when to push and when to walk away. There is more money but, as much as possible in the gambling world of a transfer market, it cannot be wasted. The FFP rules are still there, Stoke are just further away from falling on the wrong side of them.
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So a player like Ashley Barnes will tick some big boxes, having played a significant role in Burnley's title win. He's the kind of striker who helps bring out the best in others, making 39 appearances in the forward line of a team that scored 87 times, even if he only got six himself.
It is no secret that he scouted out interest from a gang of Championship clubs including Stoke, while Preston, Millwall and Cardiff were among others linked.
He turns 34 in October and has signed a two-year deal at Norwich. Norwich, who are replacing 33-year-old Teemu Pukki, expect a big contribution but it wouldn't have been well received at Stoke to get into a bidding war - save that, perhaps, for a 21-year-old who can score 25 goals.
Stoke won't want to miss out too many times and they'll finally have a bit of muscle to blow a raspberry at some rivals in the division who are sailing close to the wind.
By the end of August - and the closer to the middle of June the better - the squad has to be whole lot better than it was in 2022/23 but boundaries are an important part of squad building in the Championship. The memories are still too raw from signings that everyone, in hindsight, wishes that Stoke had walked away from in the not too distant past.
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