It is still very early doors, but this looks like this could well be Middlesbrough's year.
A team that has consistently challenged for a top-six place in the Championship over the past few seasons now appear genuine challengers to go up automatically.
As much as that is due to the impact of new head coach Rob Edwards, who took Luton into the Premier League in 2023, it is also down to the club's recruitment work in the last few years.
Since Kieran Scott was brought in as head of football from Norwich in 2021, Boro have had a focus on building a sustainable recruitment model that balances development of young talent with unearthing the odd gem from abroad and mixing them with Championship know-how.
While promotion has so far eluded them, Boro can boast several successes in this period; firstly, they are one of the most stable clubs in the Championship (in a league which has seen big clubs struggle financially and get relegated, this is not to be sniffed at).
Secondly, they have successfully traded players for profit (big profit, which we'll get on to). Thirdly, they have maintained consistent challenges for the play-off places; finishing fourth in 2023. They lost in the semi-finals that year to Coventry, and it was Rob Edwards' Luton that beat the Sky Blues in the final.
Chasing a spot in the Premier League has always been the priority but, in modern football - and especially at Championship level - making a profit from player sales is an imperative part of the business and lays the foundation for that stability. Challenging the other top teams, especially those that come down with parachute money, requires significant investment every year.
Positive then that, since the summer of 2022, Boro have made a whopping £127m-plus in player sales, including more than £63m of pure profit after purchases. The stability that affords gives clubs room to find the right coach to get them up without running too much risk, and the growing number of individual player success stories at Boro has also made them one of the most attractive Championship sides for the Premier League to sell to or send their loan players.
The most notable success of this model is probably Morgan Rogers - signed from Manchester City's academy for just £1.1m before being sold on to Aston Villa for £16.5m only six months later - and now a fully-fledged England international.
As much as it was part of the plan to develop Rogers and then sell him on, there was also a stroke of good fortune involved that led to it happening so quickly; essentially drawing Aston Villa in the FA Cup in January 2024.
Rogers produced arguably his best performance in a red shirt against them and, as the story goes, he caught Unai Emery's attention so much, he asked for him to be signed in the same transfer window. Boro made over £15m on him inside six months and have a sell-on in the deal, so stand to earn even more if - as expected - the 23-year-old moves on to even bigger things.
The chance to get Rogers was a smart spot and one that is down to a strong relationship between the clubs. Boro have signed a player from City in each of the past four summers, either on loan or permanently, culminating in a loan for the hugely talented Sverre Nypan this season - someone who could provide the difference for them in going up or not.
While Rogers is the biggest name, Rav van den Berg is perhaps the cleverest bit of recruitment under the radar. The brother of Brentford and ex-Liverpool centre-back Sepp van den Berg, Rav was picked up for just £250,000 from Dutch side FC Zwolle in the summer of 2023.
He established himself quickly and made 66 Boro appearances across two great seasons, including the fourth-place finish campaign, before being sold this past summer for £11.2m to Koln in Germany. Premier League clubs such as Fulham had been watching him regularly at the Riverside and this has further bolstered Boro's reputation for picking out a gem.
In terms of pure impact on the pitch, however, perhaps the club's most notable success is Emmanuel Latte Lath, who joined from Atalanta for £4.25m, also in 2023, and was then sold for £22m to Atlanta United 18 months later.
He became a fan-favourite, scoring 29 goals in 67 appearances, including 11 in 29 in the Championship last season. He also became an Ivory Coast international in that time and is another who courted Premier League interest, almost joining this weekend's opponents Ipswich in January, while West Ham were also keen.
There is also a string of other big names to have been sold on for good money since Scott's arrival including Djed Spence to Tottenham for £20m, Marcus Tavernier to Bournemouth for £14m, Chuba Akpom to Ajax for £13m and Finn Azaz to Southampton this past summer for £15m. Since 2022, Boro have consistently made some of the biggest sales of the Championship clubs that have not been in the Premier League in that time.
There is an argument to say that a different choice of head coach from Michael Carrick in 2022 may have seen them promoted with some of those players in that time, but the only important question right now is; have they finally built the squad to get promoted with Edwards in 2026?
The early signs are positive. After nine games so far, it has been the experienced Championship know-how that has made the immediate impact, with new signing from Blackburn, Callum Brittain, impressing along with the other experienced wing-back Matt Targett, brought in on loan from Premier League Newcastle.
However, Boro are very excited by the early displays of Slovakia centre-forward David Strelec - signed from Slovan Bratislava for £6m this past summer, and Kaly Sene - a relative unknown from Swiss side Lausanne Sports for £1.5m.
Still only 24, Strelec is already an experienced international with eight goals and 34 caps for Slovakia, who played at Euro 2024, and it was he and Sene who scored the goals in a crucial early-season win over top-six rivals West Brom.
With the established duo of academy graduate Hayden Hackney and USA international Aidan Morris, who joined from Columbus Crew for £3m in summer 2024, Boro have stability in midfield on which to build their attacks, so far via the two 10s of Nypan and Tommy Conway, bought from Bristol City last year for £5m.
If they want to change the system, there is also an abundance of winger profiles currently on the bench, from Morgan Whittaker to new addition Sontje Hansen, who cost £2.5m from FC Nijmigen in the Eredivisie. The squad appears deep and dynamic, giving Edwards an array of options to draw from depending on the opposition.
What Boro need now is for them to gel as the season progresses and ensure they at least keep pace with the likes of Coventry, Leicester and Friday's opponents Ipswich, who have found their bump back to the Championship quite hard so far. Victory for Boro over a recent Premier League side will go a long way towards this very much being their year.