With one new player, two leaving on loan and another signing a new contract, Leeds United strengthened their squad with some rounded business on Wednesday.
Nico Elvedi was the new arrival, a defender manager Daniel Farke rates highly having worked with him at Borussia Monchengladbach.
He took the place of Sebastiaan Bornauw, whose season-long loan to Hamburg was confirmed earlier in the day.
Joel Piroe also left on loan, for West Ham United, who will be obliged to buy him if, amongst other things, they win promotion back to the Premier League. The departure leaves Leeds even lighter in the centre-forward department but is good housekeeping, bringing in a loan fee, saving on wages and agreeing an undisclosed fee which it is understood would take the amount the Elland Road club receive beyond the £13m they paid Swansea City for him in 2024.
And the extra body is less of a loss when one considered Piroe only started two Premier League matches and for the first time since stepping up from Holland's second tier failed to score a league over a season.
If the money goes into the pot to sign a player to back up Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha, both of whom have chequered injury histories, it will have been good business.
Tying Joe Rodon down to a new four-year contract also counts as good at housekeeping at a club who earlier in the summer persuaded his good friend and Wales team-mate Ethan Ampadu to re-commit to the same period.
Rodon, who spent his off-season in America working on his fitness with the 25-year-old former Sheffield United loanee, is a strong candidate to be Ampadu's vice-captain after the departure of Pascal Struijk, who has joined Brighton and Hove Albion.
WORLD CUP DUTY: Nico Elvedi tackles Argentina's Lionel Messi in the World Cup quarter-final (Image: Odd ANDERSEN / AFP via Getty Images)placeholder image
WORLD CUP DUTY: Nico Elvedi tackles Argentina's Lionel Messi in the World Cup quarter-final (Image: Odd ANDERSEN / AFP via Getty Images)
Elvedi is a highly-experienced right-footed defender signed at a fraction of the cost of his new left-footed counterpart, Tarik Muharemovic, because he had a year left on his contract.
He revealed Farke, who managed Gladbach in 2022-23, and Swiss team-mate Noah Okafor had helped persuade him to join.
"I talked with Noah a little bit and he just told me good things about the club and the fans," he told his new club's website. "We talked at the World Cup about this club.
“I talked with the manager, I know him as well and he is also a big point for this change. It was just one year but I loved to have him as a manager. I learned a lot from him and I will learn a lot now.”
STAYING: Joe Rodon signs his new Leeds United contract (Image courtesy of Leeds United)placeholder image
STAYING: Joe Rodon signs his new Leeds United contract (Image courtesy of Leeds United)
Leeds are expected to pay £6.5m up front, with the potential for a further £2m to be added depending on his and his team's performances. Muharemovic cost £34.1m.
Both appeared at this summer's World Cup, Elvedi playing every minute as Switzerland reached the quarter-finals.
He also has Champions League experience with Gladbach, who he joined as a teenager from hometown club Zurich.
Now 29, his 364 appearances are the most made by a foreign player for the Westphalian club. He also has 73 caps, having been a part of every major tournament Switzerland have been involved in since his debut at the age of 19.
As well as another centre-forward, Leeds lack specialist cover at left wing-back, where Gabriel Gudmundsson is set to miss the start of the season with a hamstring injury.
But in a summer where they have made targeted, high-quality signings, Elvdei, Muharemovic, Britain's most expensive goalkeeper James Trafford and free transfer Harry Wilson leave the squad feeling stronger.
Not all contract negotiations have been as successful as Rodon and Ampadu's, with Karl Darlow running down his deal to join Manchester United on a Bosman free transfer.
Leeds' season starts with two games away to Nottingham Forest, in the Premier League on Saturday and League Cup on Tuesday.
The transfer window closes at 11pm on September 1.