Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank, in particular, will have been delighted with Saturday's 2-0 win over his former club Brentford in the Premier League.
Goals from Richarlison, signed for £60m, and Xavi Simons, signed for £52m, secured all three points for the Lilywhites, as two of their most-expensive signings start to show their quality.
An expensive signing who is not offering too much to the team at the moment, though, is £47.5m addition Brennan Johnson, who was an unused substitute against Brentford.
Why Brennan Johnson has not been a waste of money for Spurs
The Wales international has not scored in the Premier League since August, with four goals in all competitions this season, and has not been used off the bench in two of the last three matches, per Sofascore.
Signed for £47.5m from Nottingham Forest in 2023, Johnson does not currently look like good value for money, given his struggles this term, but he has not been a waste of money on the evidence of his overall time at the club so far.
The 24-year-old attacker has delivered 27 goals and 18 assists in 104 games for the Lilywhites, per Transfermarkt, including the winner in the Europa League final last season.
You could argue that his winning goal in that final was worth the £47.5m on its own because of the memories that it created, as the club's first trophy in 17 years.
Meanwhile, there is another expensive signing in the Spurs squad who should be sold, as he has been a bigger flop than Johnson and has yet to justify his price tag.
The Spurs player who should be sold in January
Dominic Solanke has been out with an ankle injury since August, with no return date given by Frank, but he should be ruthlessly sold in the January transfer window.
Spurs splashed a club-record transfer fee of £65m to sign the English striker from Bournemouth in the summer of 2024, and his performances on the pitch have not reflected that huge outlay.
For a 27-year-old, now 28, who was brought in as a Premier League-proven star in the prime years of his career, Solanke has not offered enough in front of goal to suggest that he has been worth the money, with just nine league goals for the club to date, per Sofascore.
In April, pundit Micah Richards claimed that the £65m signing had "been a disappointment all season" in the 2024/25 campaign, and it is hard to disagree with that assessment when you look at his statistics, notably costing them around £4m per goal so far.
As you can see in the table above, Solanke underperformed against his xG in both the Premier League and the Europa League last term, missing more 'big chances' than he scored goals in the former.
Johnson, meanwhile, hit double figures for goals with 11 Premier League strikes for the Lilywhites, which means that he has scored four more league goals for Spurs than Solanke since the start of last season, per Sofascore.
This shows that the Welshman, who plays on the wing rather than as a striker, has been more productive than the ex-Bournemouth man in the Premier League, whilst also being more impactful overall, given his trophy-clinching goal.
Solanke has simply not done enough on the pitch since signing for the club to prove that the Lilywhites were right to splash £65m on him, which is why they should cut their losses and cash in on him in January.
His current injury issues only add further fuel to the fire because Spurs now do not know if they can rely on him to be fit and available, whilst they also do not know if they can rely on him to be efficient in front of goal as their number nine.
Richarlison's return of six goals and two assists in nine Premier League starts so far this season, per Sofascore, also suggests that Solanke will not be the first-choice number nine when he is back fit.
That is further reason for the club to cash in on the big-money flop in January to invest in a new signing in that position, as the Englishman's move to North London has not worked out so far.