COMMENT: Hakim Ziyech is through the door. Timo Werner is about to do the same. And Kai Havertz could be about to follow them. As many are saying, Frank Lampard and Chelseaare making a statement with these market moves. But it isn't just for their rivals across Europe...
The trial. The honeymoon. For Chelsea's kids, it's over. This one season-long audition is now coming to an end. If they ever allowed themselves to believe it would always be so, reality has hit these young Blues right between the eyes.
Lampard isn't hanging around. Roman Abramovich neither. Indeed, the sudden spending of the Chelsea owner confirms an enthusiasm and appetite to compete now renewed. And before our eyes, we can see what he, Lampard and their go-between, managing director Marina Granovskaia, are putting together. It's a new team. For a new era. The Lampard era. Ziyech, at 27. Werner, 24. And potentially Havertz, of Bayer Leverkusen, at 20. Players targeted to bring not only instant, but also sustained success.
It's a youth policy, just not as many of us envisioned. All that talk of a focus on the academy... well, it still exists, but those players whom Lampard has given a chance to this season are fast realising how cut throat the demands at Stamford Bridge can be.
Those around Mason Mount would insist he has what it takes to develop into what Lampard has bought from Ajax in the form Ziyech. The support network of Tammy Abraham would argue the same regarding Red Bull Leipzig striker Werner. But after a year of bedding down, now it really is sink or swim time.
And they can't say they weren't warned. Lampard put them on notice earlier this season. With all this incoming traffic, Chelsea's manager is effectively putting his tyros through the same experience he battled with as a young player signed from West Ham United.
As he recalled in December, "When Roman Abramovich came in, the landscape changed.
"Players came into my position, (Claude) Makelele from Real Madrid, (Juan Sebastian) Veron et cetera.
"It made me stand up and take notice and prove that I am better than them. No player is the same. But what is the same is that you need to be competitive."
And that "landscape" - thanks to the scrapping of their transfer ban - has again changed. Particularly for Abraham and his minders. All of sudden he's not arguing for parity with Callum Hudson-Odoi and a £180,000-a-week deal, but with a direct competitor. Lampard can now argue, or better yet reason, that if Abraham wants that new £180,000-a-week contract then he needs to at least match - if not better - what Werner is doing. The German will arrive this summer on a package worth €200,000-a-week - effectively the same as what Abraham has been insisting he now deserves to be paid. If Abraham's camp thought they had Chelsea over a barrel, the Werner deal has certainly changed the "landscape".
But that's not to say Lampard is buying to replace these young players. As he stated, he's looking at these new additions to work two-fold - improve the quality of his top four team and also lift the competitive edge of his academy graduates.
If Mount can see off the threat of Ziyech and Havertz next season, then Chelsea and England will have a world-beater on their hands. Ditto Abraham and Werner.
Lampard again, "As much as it is important to bring in, it is as important for me that we keep the balance of the squad right.
"I don't see just the 11 players who start, but the squad of 20-plus men that need to help us over the course of the season."
Lampard wants that competition inside his squad. He wants great players driving others to new levels. And as he says, he is the one manager Chelsea have seen in modern times willing to recognise the importance of that homespun "balance".
But he doesn't want passengers. He can't afford to. And knowing what Chelsea's transfer policy brought out of him as a player, he is banking on the same for those he's introduced this season.
Chelsea are going to buy this summer. It won't end with Ziyech and Werner. And there'll be claims of the club resorting to the chequebook team building of the past. But this is a new Chelsea with a new attitude. Lampard will back these locals - but he won't play favourites. No-one did him any favours and those now working under him shouldn't expect anything different.
Just as their manager did, the likes of Mount and Abraham need to meet this challenge. And Lampard will give them everything opportunity to do so.
The arrival of Ziyech, Werner and whom ever else does make a statement, it's now up to Chelsea's kids to respond.
