It's exactly a year since Celtic accepted a £3.5million bid from an unnamed Qatari club for Tom Rogic.
Plagued by niggling injuries and loss of his midas touch the Aussie dubbed Magic Man by Brendan Rodgers for ability to win games with a single piece of wizardry looked certain to heading out the door after eight years.
Rogic’s powers appeared to be on the wane and with the Hoops up against it the love for the Socceroo seemed to be going with it.
Fast forward 12 months and the collapse of that deal has proved to be a blessing.
Without exaggeration, the 28-year-old midfielder’s resurgence under compatriot Ange Postecoglou could be every bit as important to this Hoops side as any of the new faces brought in the door by the Aussie.
As the gruff Postecoglou said: There’s been no cuddles .. but Rogic is back in the huddle.
And after a year of being on the fringes of the starting XI Celtic are looking a far more potent force for it.
There’s no magic to his revival.
The small Scottish Press corps that made the trip to deepest darkest Wales to cover the Hoops’ pre-season camp in Newport got an early insight into Rogic’s reincarnation.
A 20-minute glimpse of Postecoglou, John Kennedy and Stephen McManus leading small-sided games at the end of their session was a good watch.
But what really caught the eye was on the other side of the Dragon Park pitch where Rogic was being put through his paces by the Hoops’ fitness coaches.
Just the player, loads of balls, a series of small goals to find his passing range and a huge area set out with cones to make sure he kept on the move for the entire session.
Run, turn, pass, repeat.
Being on the move for 20 minutes is tough.
Doing it with a ball and finding your target time after time? That’s exhausting.
You could see in that moment the focus was back for Rogic. And to read soon after that he had shed 16lbs in the summer came as no surprise.
Much like Odsonne Edouard here is a player who has been bracketed as lazy at times due to his languid style.
But Rogic looks to be enjoying his football again. And that spells danger for opponents.
Finding a system where he and David Turnbull can both fit into the midfield without leaving the Hoops exposed to the counter has been a masterstroke by Postecoglou and has been absolute key to the transformation in attack that’s seen his side hammer home 24 goals in six games.
Two assists against Hearts and Alkmaar and a trademark goal against Dundee where he timed his run into the box to perfection are proof that he’s back.
Remember there’s still James McCarthy to fit into his engine room too.
Rogic at 28 should be a player coming into his prime. The next four days and a massive double header against Alkmaar and Rangers could well be a gauge of how far he - and this Celtic side - have come in just three months under Postecoglou.
The collapse of his move to the middle east may have cost Celtic £3.5m.
But that’s looking more and more likely to be as good a price as the millions shelled out on Kyogo Furuhashi and Liel Abada as Rogic once again finds his mojo.
