Cast your mind back to the summer of 2011. Southampton were a Championship club with big plans, so they went shopping in the Premier League for a midfielder.
Chelsea let Jack Cork go for a reported £750,000. He then played every single league game as the Saints went up.
That is the template worth remembering as this window heats up. The name on the radar now is Justin Devenny, and Saints have been circling the Crystal Palace midfielder since early July.
This week Alan Nixon reported that Middlesbrough have barged into the race, ready to go as high as £7m. Leicester and Preston fancy him too, so a quiet bit of scouting has turned into a proper Championship queue.
The Cork precedent is the one to remember
Cork was not a marquee name when he arrived on the south coast. He was a young squad player at a Premier League giant, short on minutes and hungry for a run of games.
Granted, Southampton knew exactly what they were getting. Cork had already played 23 Championship games on loan for the club during the 2008/9 season.
In the end, Cork became the only outfielder to feature in all 46 league games that season. The Saints finished second and went up behind Reading, missing out on the title by a single point.
Devenny fits that same shape almost exactly. He is 22, left-footed, and stuck behind better-paid names in a Premier League squad that keeps winning trophies.
His FotMob player profile shows just a single goal all last season. The rating sits at 6.40 across 21 Premier League outings, most of them off the bench.
Those figures won't knock you off your chair, mind. Cork's were modest too when he swapped Stamford Bridge for a promotion scrap.
Saints Marching framed Devenny as a ready-made swap for the departing Shea Charles in the middle. The point is the profile: a cut-price top-flight body with room to grow, not a finished article.
The price is the whole point
Transfermarkt has Devenny valued at around £10m, yet the fee doing the rounds sits nearer £7m. Why the gap?
His contract runs out next summer, so Palace would sooner cash in than lose him for nothing.
For a promotion push, a cheap midfielder with top-flight minutes is smart business. That is exactly the bet that came off with Cork.
Devenny can also cover left back or the wing when injuries start biting. There's a snag, though.
While Middlesbrough, Leicester and Preston circle, and Southampton line up similar options, timing could become a factor. If Leeds, Fulham or Palace get wind of Southampton needing to sell Shea Charles to recoup the fee from a potential Devenny deal, then Charles' asking price could drop significantly.
Nixon knows his stuff, but there are no bids on the table. Boro's willingness to snatch away a Southampton target could settle things before Eckert even moves, and Leicester are supposedly readying a bid of around the £5m mark.
Would Devenny stroll in and become the next Cork? Nobody can promise that.
But a left-footed 22-year-old with an impressive recent Palace medal haul, going cheap because his deal is ticking down, is the sort of gamble a promotion-hunting club should take.
Verdict: 3/5. Low risk, plenty of upside, and a profile Southampton have made work before.
Likelihood: 2/5. One insider, no bid yet, and a cluster of EFL rivals circling the same £7m man.
History says the move can work. It only turns serious the moment Saints stop watching and start bidding.
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