Birmingham City are now looking to put an extremely dramatic and, largely, negative recent past behind them under the ownership of Knighthead Capital Management.
For practically all the 2010s and the start of the 2020s, Blues had sunk to such a low ebb for a multitude of reasons, with a lack of investment both on the pitch and the general facilities at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park being two key criticisms.
By the time the 2020/21 season rolled around though, there was a small sense of optimism that the West Midlands outfit might, eventually, be able to turn a corner in Birmingham Sports Holdings Limited (BSHL)'s tumultuous reign as the club's ownership consortium, as former Championship promotion-winner, Aitor Karanka, became Pep Clotet's permanent successor in B9.
Just four years previous', the former right-hand man to José Mourinho at Real Madrid had seen a long-term rebuilding project with Middlesbrough culminate in the Teesside club's return to the Premier League for the first time in seven years, before being dismissed in April 2017, with a year-long stint back in the Championship also coming at Nottingham Forest between the Januaries of 2018 and 2019.
However, it proved to be yet another failed spell back in the English second tier with Birmingham, with the Vitoria native winning just eight of his 38 competitive fixtures in the Second City before being relieved of his duties in March 2021.
The unique start time of the campaign due to previous COVID-19 lockdowns impacting the previous season's end meant that clubs were often seen conducting business well into the Autumn and the start of the winter, and that certainly applied to Blues when they pursued the free transfer of former Barcelona 'wonderkid' and Croatian playmaker, Alen Halilovic.
However, as had previously been the case, the Balkan continued to be weighed down by previous comparisons to, arguably, the sport's greatest-ever player, Lionel Messi, as he failed to have the desired impact in royal blue.
Alen Halilovic was compared to Lionel Messi after 2014, Barcelona switch
Alen Halilovic and Luke Shaw
Back in April 2014, it appeared as though the Catalan giants had sourced their latest young prodigy when it was confirmed that Halilovic would officially sign for the Nou Camp club at the start of the 2014/15 campaign after coming through the youth ranks at Dinamo Zagreb, whilst also being a star performer in the relevant age groups at Croatian national level.
With his national side producing talents that would become known as their 'Golden Generation', as they reached the 2018 World Cup Final and 2022 World Cup semi-finals over time, much was expected of Halilovic to eventually become the heartbeat of those sides, replicating the success of current Swansea City co-owner and 2018 Ballon d'Or winner, Luka Modrić.
After seeing Mateo Kovacic and Tin Jedvaj also depart for big sums to Inter Milan and Roma beforehand, quotes from Dinamo's sporting director, Zoran Mamic, were relayed by the Guardian.
"I'm fully aware of how pretentious this may sound," Mamic stated in 2012. "But he's a Messi-type player if there ever was one."
With such comments being made whilst Halilovic was just 16, plenty of hype surrounded the playmaker in due course. However, he would fail to make a senior appearance for Barcelona, whilst going on to endure a similar fate with AC Milan between 2018 and 2020.
Alen Halilovic failed to resurrect career with short Birmingham City stint
Alen Halilovic of Birmingham City vs Brentford
After an intriguing, yet frustrating, senior career path, Halilovic penned a short-term deal with Blues in November 2020 after departing the Italian giants on a free transfer.
He would make his debut in an 18-minute substitute cameo against Bristol City two weeks later, but found himself in and out of the side for the remainder of the season, even after Karanka was replaced by former Birmingham midfielder, Lee Bowyer, as manager, in the spring of 2021.
The Croatian's only goal for Blues came in a 2-1 victory over Queens Park Rangers in February 2021, before departing at the end of the season after starting in just nine of his 17 league appearances.
He would also fail to make an impact with divisional rivals, Reading, the following season after agreeing yet another free transfer.
The Dubrovnik native made just 11 appearances for the Royals, registering one goal and a further two assists before being absent from January 2022 until the end of his contract through a hamstring issue.
As such, his career has since taken him back to Croatia with HNK Rijeka under the management of current Hull City boss, Sergej Jakirovic, and he now features for Fortuna Sittard.
However, it is a far cry from what was initially predicted for the 10-cap international.