Hearts said goodbye to a full team of players on Monday.
Eleven released - but after the performances last season it could have been any number more.
Other than Craig Gordon, Liam Boyce, Michael Smith, Craig Halkett and Aaron McAneff I wouldn’t have been surprised see anyone else’s name on the list.
As much as they won the league, the performances as a team and individually simply weren’t up to standard.
Now it’s time to start building a starting XI fit for the Premiership.
A team that connects with the fans, that can create a legacy and a squad of players that would meet the standards laid down by Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown two decades ago.
Let me tell you; the first day I turned up for my medical in 2010 they left me in no doubt as to what was expected.
I was stood outside Tynecastle and they asked me ‘do you understand what it means to play for this club?’
Maybe I thought I did but, honestly? I had no idea at that point. Even though I’d played there as a young kid.
It soon hit home though. We had a changing room full of boys who knew what it meant to pull on that shirt and bleed for the club, the privilege to represent the fans and the severity of the expectations.
Boys that would run through a brick wall for the gaffer as I still call him. I went to a game last season where I was sat at the same table as him and I still get nervous in his presence!
That’s because of the standards he demanded and instilled in us - if you couldn’t meet that then you were out the door.
That’s how it’s got to be. Because 100 per cent Hearts are the third force in Scotland and that’s what they need to prove next season. Get back above Hibs, into Europe and cement a consistency where they are in the top three every year.
Clearing out the squad this week was a start.
Now it’s about getting the right players and characters in for the long term. You can’t keep changing players.
It’s something like 93 players they have gone through in five years which is madness.
You can’t sustain that financially and, also, the fans need to have a connection with players - they go to games and know who’s representing them like Gary Locke and Christophe Berra in their prime.
But right now it’s got to a stage where some of the players I can’t even remember being there. They are there for six months then disappear.
The players recruited last season - other than McAneff who I like and hope can do well in the Premiership - have not set the heather on fire.
Gary Mackay-Steven had a couple of decent games at the end of the season and Hearts will be expecting big things off him this year.
But I was expecting so much more from the signings.
So Robbie Neilson and Joe Savage have to get it right this summer.
As I said they need to create a legacy.
The foundations are in place, they have a brilliant new stand and the training facilities are excellent. Now they need a team to match.
The fans deserve nothing less. To have stood by the club as they have despite the turbulence they have been through is unbelievable.
They have been relegated twice, been through the Romanov era, been through more players and managers than they’d wish. But they stuck by the club week in and week out.
I need to sign off this week by doffing my cap to Billy Gilmour.
Like Billy I went down to Chelsea as a young teenager and know how hard it can be to be away from your family at that time. Training with big names was great and I ended up taking things a bit for granted.
It caught me up a bit and I was back up the road after three or four years before my 18th birthday.
But what Billy has done is remarkable.
He has grown as a young man and a footballer and has developed into a special talent.
For Scotland to have that - a Champions League winner - we should all be proud.
Ironically Steve Clarke was my manager in the Chelsea Academy back then and his coaching, training and way he dealt with players was first class.
That bodes well for Billy and all the other youngsters in the Scotland squad now.
It really is exciting times for the nation.
