It feels like just a matter of days since Fulham announced that veteran winger Willian had signed a new contract with the club - probably because it was.
After weeks of speculation, the west London club announced on July 17th that the Brazilian had agreed to a new 1-year contract - rejecting offers from Nottingham Forest and Saudi Arabia to extend his stay at Craven Cottage.
But now, a mere 18 days later, the 34-year-old has agreed personal terms with Al-Shabab and told current manager Marco Silva of his desire to pursue the deal.
It wouldn't be the first time that the Brazilian has failed to keep to his word, so what is the situation - and do Fulham have a leg to stand on?
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Deja vu
In 2013, when leaving Anzhi Makhachkala, Willian became the focus of one of the most high-profile transfer hijacks of all time. He had agreed a deal to join Chelsea's London rivals Tottenham - where he was supposed to be the replacement for the Real Madrid-bound Gareth Bale.
The deal was so advanced that The Lilyewhites had paid for him to fly into London, and he even spent hours at their training ground with some of the club's top figures. With a transfer fee and personal terms agreed, as well as the medical scheduled, everybody thought it was a done deal, including Tottenham's then manager André Villas-Boas.
But Willian left without signing a contract and travelled across London to meet with Chelsea, where he quickly agreed upon terms and signed a contract - completing his roughly £30m move to the Premier League, at the second time of asking.
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Loyalties?
Willian could be seen as a case study for there being a lack of loyalty in football, having played, or almost played, for 3 different London teams now. After his 7-year spell at Stamford Bridge, he rejected numerous contract extension offers in favour of a move to fierce rivals Arsenal - a move which caused a lot of frustration from Chelsea fans, perhaps retribution for their initial hijack of the forward.
His time at Arsenal was massively underwhelming, so much so that Chelsea fans often labelled him as 'agent Willian', claiming that he was trying to sabotage the side.
Just a year later he left England in favour of a return to boyhood club Corinthians - which was also short-lived. From here, he made a return to the Premier League with recently promoted Fulham, yet another rival of Chelsea - which brings us to the present day.
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A false sense of security
The 1-time Copa America winner had only joined Fulham on a 1-year deal, during which time he notched up 5 goals and 5 assists in the league. He also added a different dimension to how the side played - helping to achieve one of their best league finishes of all time.
Despite this, he had appeared somewhat reluctant to sign a new deal extending his stay at Craven Cottage, having had reported offers from Nottingham Forest and an unnamed Saudi Arabian club - as has become the theme of the summer.
But after weeks of speculation, as well as rumours that he had formally decided to leave the club (and even suggestions of a medical taking place at Nottingham Forest), the club announced that he had agreed to sign a new contract, committing himself for the upcoming season.
Fulham's owner, Tony Khan, was so delighted by the news that he took to Twitter to share his thoughts.
"I'm thrilled that Willian will return to @FulhamFC for at least one more season! He was a very important addition last summer, and he was a significant contributor during one of the most successful Premier League campaigns that our club has ever had.
"We're all very excited that Willian will return to Craven Cottage as we aim for another successful season in the Premier League together!"
Willian had been enjoying a fairly strong pre-season but, at the time of writing, I suspect that Mr. Khan is feeling rather red-faced, of both embarrassment but also anger - and rightly so.
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Money talks
The winger's Fulham future now hangs in the balance as he has received a new offer from Saudi Arabian side Al-Shabab, worth roughly double the £100k per week he is set to earn with The Cottagers. He certainly would not be the first star to be tempted by lucrative Saudi Arabian offers this summer, but it would represent a very unusual situation given his recent contract renewal.
Indications show that Fulham, understandably, have no interest in entertaining offers for their man, even though both he and Al-Shabab are insisting on the deal. The Mirror have also reported that there is a clause in his new contract that would allow him to leave for free in the event of an 'out of common' financial bid, which a 100% wage increase would surely constitute - which perhaps raises doubts over the existence of such a clause.
Receiving no transfer fee for their star man would represent something of a sucker blow for Fulham, limiting their ability to buy an adequate replacement and leaving them under-prepared for the season ahead.
So while fans of Al-Shabab will be hoping to see this marquee signing to boost their chances of success in the rapidly growing Saudi Pro League, they could be fighting an uphill battle - unless Willian's supposed exit clause turns out to be real.
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Closing thoughts
This article is not about discussing the controversy of the Saudi Pro League as a whole. But it is only right that we talk about their spending and transfer tactics, which are both having an enormous impact on football across the globe.
While these clubs are clearly not bound by any sort of financial fair play, they will continue to be free to offer obscene fees and wages to build a super league of their own, with the aim of competing amongst the best divisions in Europe.
One thing which may well help the situation from other clubs' point of view is a clamping down on rules about 'tapping up' players. Strictly speaking, you cannot offer a player a contract, or even loosely discuss terms, before agreeing a fee with the selling club (unless they are, or are soon to be, a free agent).
Enforcement of such a rule would have likely prevented this very situation, as Willian would have simply never known about the offer, and continued at Fulham as planned - unless they agreed to a sale first.
But with this looking unlikely and tricky to enforce even if it were decided upon, we can expect plenty more big-money moves to the Middle East - and possibly more unhappy clubs.
Fulham will be especially as they also look set to lose their 7th all-time leading goalscorer Aleksandar Mitrović to the league as well. Not to mention how close Marco Silva came to making a similar move, though he opted to remain in the Premier League - rejecting a £20m+ annual salary.