A fortnight ago, as Bournemouth prepared to return to league action after three weeks without a game, a run of five draws had left any hopes of European qualification seemingly fading into the distance.
However, back-to-back away wins at Arsenal and Newcastle, with the players unaffected by the confirmation of head coach Andoni Iraola's departure at the end of the season, has drawn Europe back into sharp focus.
And while the Cherries are yet to beat a newly promoted team in 2025-26, with four draws and a defeat from their first five attempts, a win over Leeds on Wednesday evening would allow them to leapfrog Brighton into sixth place, while even a draw would nudge them above Chelsea into seventh.
While speculation had hung over Iraola's future for most of the campaign as his contract ticked down, the swift announcement of Marco Rose as his successor has prevented a drawn-out period of uncertainty over Bournemouth's direction of travel.
Succession planning has been an important factor for the Cherries as they continue to compete with clubs with much bigger stadiums and deeper pockets.
There was less than a week between the announcements of Iraola's exit and Rose's arrival. Similarly, after speculation over Dominic Solanke's future had dominated the summer of 2024, once the striker's protracted move to Tottenham finally went through, the signing of his replacement Evanilson was completed less than a week later.
And last summer, the saga of Milos Kerkez's switch to Liverpool dragged on so much that Bournemouth actually completed the signing of his replacement Adrien Truffert before Kerkez had put pen to paper at Anfield.
The Cherries' push up the table will not have gone unnoticed, and has already provoked a fresh round of summer transfer speculation around some of this season's standout players, such as Alex Scott and Eli Junior Kroupi.
While much of what has been written, and will be written in the coming weeks, can be taken with a pinch of salt, it is clear that Bournemouth's recruitment team are used to planning for eventualities.
Although the Cherries hierarchy would prefer there not to be an exodus on the scale of last summer, contingency planning will be in place. Or to put it another way, for every Antoine Semenyo sale, there is a Rayan deal waiting to be done.