Leicester City were crying out for a striker of Jamie Vardy 's lethal quality this season just gone in the Championship.
Instead of having a feared goal machine leading the line, though, the Foxes had to rely on the likes of Patson Daka and Jordan Ayew to get them out of spots of bother, and that fell flat on its face, to say the least.
Between them last season, in league action, only 11 goals would find the back of the net, as relegation was depressingly served up.
When Vardy was the Foxes regular focal point up top, 11 goals off his own back would be seen as a disappointing return.
Indeed, the now 39-year-old centre-forward would be ridiculously consistent in front of goal for the Midlands giants, when he called Leicester home over 500 games.
He would bow out from his goal-laden spell with the Foxes with a whopping 200 strikes next to his name, with his final season in the Premier League - despite his age and the stresses of relegation weighing him down - seeing him amass a respectable nine goals.
Helping himself to double figures in the goal department across nine of his 13 seasons at the King Power, it really goes without saying that Vardy is a bonafide Foxes icon, with his exit at the close of last campaign stinging.
Nobody could have foreseen who the Sheffield-born marksman would join next, after letting his Leicester contract run down, as Vardy put pen to paper on an unexpected switch to Serie A outfit, Cremonese .
He hasn't been ripping it up on a week-in, week-out basis, as he did so often in Leicestershire, since swapping England for Lombardy.
But his last outing for the relegation-threatened minnows proved that class is very much permanent, when it comes to the beloved veteran.
Even a weak season for Vardy can still be considered relatively respectable, as his six goals so far this campaign in Serie A means he's on the same level as Daka and Ayew.
At 39 years of age, it is expected that the 5-foot-10 menace will be a little rusty and fatigued, compared to his insane Leicester heights.
But, much like he did so many times for the Foxes, he bailed Cremonese out in Serie A action last match when his team needed him to be potent in front of goal, as he stroked home the opening goal in a basement battle clash with Pisa .
Vardy confidently finishing off an opportunity to make it 1-0 would set the tone for the rest of the encounter, as his new employers would go on to win 3-0 emphatically.
Marco Giampaolo's men are still stuck in the relegation spaces in the Italian top-flight despite this win, but they are only one point off breaking out of the bottom three in Serie A.
With two games left to go, it's clear who Cremonese will be relying on to get them out of this mess, with Giampaolo even noting that Vardy is an " ideal" striker to work alongside.
The 39-year-old will be ready to add another memorable tale to his unfolding story if he does spearhead this late escape from relegation, with the beloved ex-Leicester striker about to have a Netflix documentary released, too, all about his crazy career escapades.
This article was originally published on www.foxesofleicester.com as Jamie Vardy rolls back the years to remind everyone of his Leicester greatness .
