It may feel like nothing has changed on the pitch at Tottenham Hotspur, following an ignominious start to the new Premier League season, but off it there has been a sea change in how the club operates.
Spurs have followed up a second consecutive 17th-placed finish in the Premier League - only just staving off relegation to the Championship on the final day of the 2025/26 season - with back-to-back defeats to start the 2026/27 campaign.
For anyone who checks league tables at this stage of the season, Spurs are bottom of the pile, with no goals scored and five conceded after two matches.
Talk about picking up where you left off.
But there has been a massive overhaul behind the scenes, with the Tottenham hierarchy finally backing a manager and putting their money with their mouths are.
It may not have amounted to much on the pitch, yet, but it surely will as the weeks, months and years move on. It has really been a case of 'out with the old and in with the new' in N17, and some Spurs fans will argue that it was long overdue.
Mauricio Pochettino, one of the club's most successful managers of the past few decades, despite winning nothing, called for a "painful rebuild" shortly before he was sacked in 2019. He knew what was required, but did not really get it, nor was he really given the time to achieve it.
Pochettino called for it and Spurs have now followed through
Now, seven years later, it's finally happened.
De Zerbi was initially reluctant to take the Spurs job, but eventually relented and needed all his nous to rescue the club from relegation. What has happened this summer has all been in his image.
Seventeen players have left the club - some only temporarily, although you do wonder if any of the seven loan exits actually have a future with the club, with three of them having either an option or an obligation to make their departure permanent next summer.
Ten players have come into the club, with the final two arriving on deadline day - Mykhailo Mudryk and Tosin Adarabioyo from Chelsea. It should come as little surprise that it might take them time to gel and work out De Zerbi's playing style, as well as how all their new teammates operate.
Spurs have spent in the region of £389million on those new recruits, but crucially, have recouped around £255million, if all of those loan deals are made permanent come the end of the season.
That's not bad business overall and should put a stop to all the questions over how they can spend so much money when others can't - even though some of those teams' fans that were complaining also ended up spending big money this summer too.
It has been an incredible summer of backing the manager in the dugout at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, something the supporters are not used to seeing. They are used to seeing loads of rumours and links with this player and that player and eventually failing to get them, or getting a different, slightly suspect alternative instead.
Times are changing in N17 and De Zerbi is at the front and centre of that rebuild Pochettino told everyone was required. Now all he has to do is get the players singing from the same hymn sheet to get Spurs up the table and challenging at the very top once more.
There may be some pain still to come on the pitch, but when De Zerbi gets it right, things should be much rosier in the white north London garden.