The international window only closed on Monday, and the domestic one remains open until Friday evening, yet there are just 86 days until the January shopping can commence.
Everton and the rest of the Premier League clubs can head into the market from January 4 until February 1 to help reshape their squads for the second-half of this season.
Since the arrival of Marcel Brands, as the club's director of football, the Blues have taken stock of how they look at the winter window and have, in the last two years, spent less than £1m, on a teenage defender from League Two.
It's not a marketplace he sees as offering much in the way of value. Everton, under his watch, are unlikely to ever head into a January thinking about spending big and the only other deal – at least that we know of – that Brands chased in the winter was in January 2019 when he enquired about taking Moise Kean on loan from Juventus.
All very sensible, level-headed, pragmatic and, most would agree, the right course of action, given some of the amounts squandered in recent Januarys.
But what this summer window – which of course stretched into October – has shown us is that this season, above all others, Everton are flexible.
That their well-defined and clear strategies about how to approach the market, and who to approach, have been open to change recently.
The Blues decided not to only invest significant sums in players aged 20-25/6 – Ben Godfrey a prime example of when they did – but also pay for the more immediate impact of experienced pros, all in the name of helping to kick-start the first full season of Carlo Ancelotti's reign.
So far, so perfect.
And so you have to wonder if Everton have to keep an open mind about what begins in 86 days' time and lasts for just under a month.
Brands' desire to, pretty much, avoid the need to splash the cash in the January window like the plague is unlikely to change but he says that clubs who tend to do that are the ones in “trouble”.
But what about those doing well? What about those still right in the mix for the top four, say? Who could use an extra body, someone to add new impetus or add some back-up and depth to a position in which the club are light?
All the noises are that Bernard may look for a move away in January, should his prospects not improve, so there may end up being a need to replace him.
Everton, it will not have escaped people's notice, have the sensational James Rodriguez as a right-wing option, but not really anyone else.
Anthony Gordon and Alex Iwobi are better suited to the left hand side, Theo Walcott has gone to Southampton and Yannick Bolasie has been told there is no room for him.
You can picture the scene now. It's January, Everton are still in the mix but they are playing a lot of games - in league and cup - niggling injuries are being picked up and Ancelotti feels his squad could use reinforcing in one or two areas, even if the players come in on loan...
Finding the right player, or players, is far easier said, than done, but the principle of what the January window could offer, is sound.
In Ancelotti's first January window as boss, which opened about a week after his first game, he and Brands decided it better to keep their powder dry and pursue midfield targets – Allan – in the summer.
The feeling was that the Blues had enough to get through to the end of the season.
And that was a decision very much in keeping with what Everton had done the previous year, too. But what Everton did this summer was less in tune with what had gone before and you have to wonder – indeed, you have to hope – that the Blues keep an open mind about the winter window this time around, not because they will be in trouble, but because they will still (we hope!) be on course to meet their target of European qualification.
Ronald Koeman was backed to the tune of nearly £30m in January 2017, signing Morgan Schneiderlin and Ademola Lookman. When Schneiderlin arrived, Everton were seventh in the table and the midfielder played his part in ensuring they wrapped up a Europa League return, with room to spare.
And going further back, to the last time the Blues were in a decent position come the turn of the year, Roberto Martinez added Aiden McGeady and Lacina Traore to his squad.
Their impact was minimal, but the intent was clear as Everton finished fifth that season.
And so the start made by Ancelotti's side has only raised belief that come January, Everton will still be right in the thick of where they want to be but while the winter window is typically one Brands looks to swerve, maybe it will be one to explore this time around.
