Achieving David Moyes's stated aim for West Ham got an awful lot harder the moment Newcastle's Saudi takeover went through late in 2021.
Moyes spoke often and, despite the Hammers' lowly League position, still does, about his plan to disrupt the traditional 'big six', having managed it two seasons ago and almost again last term.
Now, though, the concept of a 'big six' is flawed, and not merely because two of its members sit ninth and 10th in the division, nor because Brighton are sixth. With the rise of the Toon, six is well on its way to becoming seven.
Even if the term 'best of the rest' — another of Moyes's oft-quoted targets — now means finishing eighth, the Hammers are on track to fall way short.
Ahead of tomorrow's trip to St James' Park, the sense of crisis around the club has eased slightly following a run of three wins in five games in all competitions, but only one of those has come in the Premier League, against arguably its worst team, Everton. That victory lifted the Hammers out of the relegation zone, but only by a point.
Newcastle, by contrast, are third, still in there swinging past the midway point of the season and bolstered this week by the £45million signing of Everton's Anthony Gordon, as well as, less glamorously, young full-back Harrison Ashby from tomorrow's opponents.
The Magpies' spending power, which is really the financial power of the Saudi state, outstrips that of the Hammers and will before long do likewise to almost every other club in Europe, but to put this season's chasm between two clubs with — for now at least — comparable aims, down to money alone would be wrong.
Prior to the window that has just closed (the jury on both sides' new additions is out), Newcastle had spent around £210m since their takeover, only £40m more than West Ham across the same period, but with vastly superior results.
Since arriving in the Premier League, West Ham's Lucas Paqueta is yet to match the impact of countryman Bruno Guimaraes, despite being ahead of the Newcastle midfielder in Brazil's pecking order. Kieran Trippier, signed from Atletico Madrid last January, has been this season's outstanding full-back, something of a problem position for the Hammers, despite the summer arrivals of Emerson Palmieri and Thilo Kherer.
Alexander Isak has as many Premier League goals as Gianluca Scamacca in less than a third as many games. Even at centre-back, where Nayef Aguerd looks like an outstanding buy, Newcastle have every reason to be content with their return on investment in Sven Botman.
It is not as straightforward as suggesting West Ham might simply have bought those players instead: Newcastle have the lure of greater earning potential, of joining a project on the ground floor that is on the way up fast and the carrot of Champions League football, perhaps as soon as next year.
At present, however, one club is performing at the peak of its capacity, while the other, most certainly, is not.
