Watching from the stands at St James’ Park on Saturday, Lewis Hall will reflect on his whirlwind summer move from Chelsea to Newcastle.
The 19-year-old had been at Chelsea since he was eight and went from signing a new long-term contract to joining Newcastle just two weeks later.
Hall has initially moved on loan, meaning he is ineligible when Chelsea face Newcastle in the Premier League, but the deal is set to become permanent for £28million next summer.
The move was met with anger from large sections of Chelsea fans, who were unhappy at losing the club’s academy player of the season to a rival.
In a nightmare campaign for Chelsea last season, Hall was one of the few positives and impressed during 11 first-team appearances.
Chelsea recognised his potential and initially rejected approaches from clubs, including Newcastle, to tie up the highly-rated teenager to his first senior contract.
He was linked with a loan move to Crystal Palace and a series of unrelated events helped lead to his eventual exit.
Chelsea saw their relationship with Palace tested over negotiations to sign Michael Olise, which ultimately resulted in the winger signing a new contract in South London.
The Blues then beat Liverpool to sign Moises Caicedo for £115m. They again beat Liverpool three days later to sign Romeo Lavia for £55m.
Hall is a natural midfielder and both deals hurt his chances of playing, having already lost minutes to other new signings under Mauricio Pochettino in pre-season.
Having played a lot at left-back last season, he had Ben Chilwell, Marc Cucurella and returning loanee Ian Maatsen as further competition.
Chelsea, who spent more than they anticipated to win two bidding wars with Liverpool, looked to the academy to raise funds to balance the books to ensure they stay within Financial Fair Play rules.
Selling some home-grown players would be “pure profit” on the books and in the last few days of the transfer window Chelsea accepted offers from Nottingham Forest for Trevoh Chalobah, Burnley for Maatsen and Newcastle for Hall.
Chelsea co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali have close relationships with the Reuben brothers, who grew up supporting Chelsea and are part of the ownership at Newcastle, as well as Newcastle co-owners Mehrdad Ghodoussi and Amanda Staveley.
The respective owners negotiated the Hall deal directly, with the Chalobah and Maatsen deals falling through.
Hall has already shown for Newcastle that Chelsea may live to regret letting him go.
He has made his Champions League debut and scored a stunning first professional goal away at Manchester United in a 3-0 Carabao Cup win at Old Trafford.
Eddie Howe has eased in the England Under-21 international, who has made just five appearances in all competitions.
The terms of his loan deal do not allow him to play on Saturday, as Chelsea and Newcastle battle on and off the pitch in the race for the Champions League next season.
But, with a busy winter period to come and an injury crisis at St James’ Park, Hall could be set for more prominent role for the club his family supports after willingly taking a move he never saw coming.
