It has been just 18 days since the Premier League campaign kicked off, but with all the hoopla surrounding transfer deadline day it feels as though the season's first major piece of silverware will be handed out at 11pm tonight.
If you were to go through life exclusively consuming sport via Sky Sports News then you could be forgiven for thinking that this was the biggest day of the season, bar none.
The channel's Scottish foghorn-in-chief, Jim White will be attached to an espresso drip to take his booming delivery up a couple of notches, while his co-presenter will be given ear plugs to comply with European regulations covering safety in a noisy workplace.
As Wolves manager Mick McCarthy put it yesterday: "I'll be listening to Jim. I won't need the telly on."
At Tuesday's press conference with a handful of England squad members, one of the station's reporters tried to coax Wayne Rooney into giving them a name check by asking him questions about watching the day unfold. Rooney didn't play ball.
Reporters will be stationed outside training grounds up and down the country trying to steal a glance inside of every Range Rover that steers its way past them. There may well be stories of fax machines breaking and erroneous reports of someone boarding a helicopter bound for London, but the heightened sense of anticipation will bestow even the most minor deal with an extra level of significance.
This is the day when everything big is supposed to happen. Someone should have told Manchester City.
It appears that the most surprising transfer of the summer window has already broken, with City moving to sign Owen Hargreaves following his release from neighbours Manchester United at the end of last season.
After a series of debilitating knee problems reduced him to just 11 minutes of action in the past two seasons, United lost patience with the man they had paid £17 million for in 2007.
It was assumed the versatile midfielder would slink off quietly into the night, destined to cut a sorry figure on benches at Championship grounds the length and breadth of England.
But instead, Roberto Mancini has been convinced by the videos Hargreaves posted on the internet to prove his fitness, and has taken the opportunity to sign a player who was once one of England's best.
Because make no mistake, that is the truth. At the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the country to which he moved from Canada at a young age, Hargreaves was the outstanding performer in Sven-Goran Eriksson's side.
With Bayern Munich, Hargreaves burst on to the scene and played an instrumental part in the Bavarian club winning the Champions League in 2001, as well as picking up four Bundesliga winner's medals.
He then proved he could do it in England in some fashion, winning the Premier League and the Champions League in his first season at United. That year he played 34 times for the club - including all 120 minutes and converting in the shootout of the European final win against Chelsea in Rome - and scored the winner against Arsenal at Old Trafford. He was no passenger.
This is the player Mancini wants to sign, not the man who went on to make just five more appearances for United over the ensuing three years.
If concerns over his fitness can be allayed then Mancini has got a player who, at 30 years old, still has plenty to offer. That is, of course, a big 'if', but no one will be better qualified to make that call than the City staff that ran him through his medical yesterday and gave the all-clear, especially as they are well aware of their manager's rigorous training methods.
Given the amount of money already spent under Sheikh Mansour's stewardship, signing a free agent on a highly-incentivised one-year deal is hardly the most profligate thing the club has done in recent years.
Had he gone to a smaller club then he would have been a financial burden, but he is certainly worth a punt for a club with the resources of City.
Many may question the wisdom of bringing another defensive midfielder into the City fold, but Nigel de Jong and Gareth Barry are the only two currently at the club who truly fit into that bracket. Surely Hargreaves back to his top form is a marked improvement on Barry?
Besides, Hargreaves offers a lot more than just screening a defence and playing it simple. In every task that has been handed him by Eriksson, Ottmar Hitzfeld or Alex Ferguson - be it filling in as a full-back, man-marking an opposition danger-man or playing further up the field - he has always exceeded his brief.
The United faithful may have never fully taken to their erstwhile midfielder, with his quiet demeanour, transatlantic accent and millions in the bank for what amounts to three years of physiotherapy and surgery. This is no act of Carlos Tevez-style 'treachery', but that will not stop some giving him a hard time when City arrive at Old Trafford on October 23.
But, before that, City will see how highly the Hargreaves of old is regarded at Bayern when they travel to the Allianz Arena for their opening Champions League group fixture in a month's time.
There may be plenty of frenzied transfer action across the Premier League today, but you will have to go some to find a more surprising and intriguing deal than the one which will see Hargreaves become a Manchester City player.
- - -
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Clearly there was an incident and it would be wrong to apportion blame until we have all the facts. Leon and the fitness coach were having words after the game and there was a disagreement between them. As Leon came off the pitch Paolo was conscious these things should be done behind closed doors. There was a misunderstanding there that carried on into the tunnel. It got to a situation where the whole thing blew up very fast. There was frustration on both sides. The whole issue was trivial but nobody responded in the right way." - Swindon chairman Jeremy Wray puts a brave face on circumstances surrounding an extraordinary bust-up between manager Paolo Di Canio and striker Leon Clarke which began on the field and carried on down the tunnel at the end of their Carling Cup defeat to Southampton. What took you so long, Paolo?
FOREIGN VIEW: "We were confronted with the fallout from this book non-stop in the past days. I personally told Philipp I do not think it is proper as a current player to judge coaches in public. You should not do this. I think this is unfortunate but we are all of the opinion that as a whole the book did not reveal any internal issues from inside the team. I hope the issue for us is now closed and we can focus on our next tasks, the important ones." - Germany manager Joachim Loew insists the issue over controversial comments made in national team captain Philipp Lahm's new autobiography has been settled. In the book, Lahm criticises several coaches and players, including former Germany boss Rudi Voeller.
COMING UP: All the rumours and deals on deadline day can be followed with our very own Eurobot in the transfer window news ticker, which is running all the way until midnight tonight. You can also stay updated on Twitter @eurosportmoves.
Jim White and Andy Mitten will be filing their latest blogs, and another Premier League player goes under the microscope in our video report.
Elsewhere there is live coverage of the latest stage of the Vuelta a Espana (12:10), the third day's play at the US Open (16:00) and England's Twenty20 clash with India (18:00).