If Real Madrid finally sign Kylian Mbappe this summer (and the Frenchman wants it to happen and PSG are resigned to it happening) then the Spanish club will have the best Under 25 team in world football – one that could dominate the game for a decade.
And it will be the result of years of working the transfer market more effectively than any other club in world football.
First came the huge shift in philosophy from signing the biggest names for the biggest fees – something that has been Paris Saint-Germain’s greatest error in 10 years of failing to win the Champions League.
And then came their management of the Mbappe situation – stepping back from any stratospheric offer for him last summer but also keeping a space for him in the squad by replacing the outgoing Karim Benzema with only 33-year-old sure-bet journeyman centre-forward Joselu.
It was an open invitation for Mbappe to see out the final year of his contract without signing a new deal.
The sweeping up of the best young talent has been largely down to chief scout Juni Calafat who has proved time an again over the last decade that he can deliver on the most difficult of challenges.
In 2013 he was tasked with making sure the club never again missed out on the best young talent coming out of Br azil, as they had done with Neymar.
And the Madrid-born talent spotter who grew up in Br azil delivered with the capture of Vinicius, Rodrygo and now teenage striker Endrick who will be in the first team squad next summer.
Calafat has also been behind the successful replacement of the club’s greatest ever midfielder of Casemiro, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric.
With Casemiro long gone and Modric set to leave at the end of the season Madrid’s midfield now revolves around Aurelien Tchouameni, Jude Bellingham and Eduardo Camavinga.
It’s true that financial muscle helped them outbid Liverpool for Tchouameni but they signed Camavinga when he was only 19 and the rest of Europe had not yet woken up to his huge talent.
‘Project Youth’ has not finished yet with 18-year-old Arder Guler edging closer to full fitness having arrived from Fenerbahce in the summer for €20million. And home grown 19-year-old Nico Paz has already made four appearances having starred in the B-team’s midfield with seven goals.
Next summer they will also move for Bayern Munich left-back Alphonso Davies who will only have one year left on his contract. The 23-year-old will keep the average age down and his cost will be covered by the departure of either Fran Garcia or Ferland Mendy.
The eleven to start next season will make Real Madrid clear favourites to win the Champions League; the competition they are currently trying to destroy with their so-far failed European Super League breakaway.
Thibaut Courtois (31), Dani Carvajal (32) and Antonio Rudiger (30) will give experience to a side that, beyond those three, will not include a single player currently over 25.
Bellingham (20), Valverde (25), Tchouameni (24) and Camavinga (21) will line-up in midfield for as long as Toni Kroos (who is expected to extend his contract at the age of 34) allows.
And up front Vinicius (23) will partner Mbappe (25), with Guler (18) Rodrygo (23), Endrick (17) and Brahim Diaz (24) all giving the coach the option of playing a third forward.
And the coach will be Carlo Ancelotti which is another reason to fear their domination. The only downside of having such a stellar squad is the unenviable task of keeping everyone happy and it’s why Real Madrid have been just as shrewd in their choice of manager as they have with the way they have built the playing squad.
If anyone can manage the development of Endrick, keep the fringe players happy and ensure that the arrival of Mbappe does not affect the harmony that currently exists in a dressing room lead by Bellingham and Vinicius, then it is the massively experience serial trophy winner who has turned down the possibility of coaching Br azil to stay at Real Madrid beyond this summer.
Why take a job that allows you to coach the best Br azilians when you have won that also allows you to coach the best Europeans?
Madrid will not stop planning ahead even if they hit the Mbappe free-transfer jackpot this summer. Centre-backs David Alaba (31) and Nacho (34) have been less than convincing this season and the Rudiger- Militao partnership will need stronger back-up.
Madrid will also not want to be out of the room if and when Erling Haaland decides he fancies another challenge.
But the club has to repay over €1.17bn borrowed to rebuild its stadium and that will be factored into future forays into the market. What is more, the lessons have been learned regards breaking transfer records for already established top stars.
During his first spell as President, Florentino Perez used to bring in a Galatico at the rate of one a summer. It filled the squad with Ballon D’Or winners but not the trophy cabinet with cups as from 2003 until 2007 they won nothing.
Now things are very different. Signing the world's best teenagers, allowing them to mature at the club, and adding to the mix the world's best player on a free-transfer is the new magic formula and it could produce something very special over the coming years.