Alvaro Morata is finally fulfilling his potential alongside Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid to banish the nightmare of his time at Chelsea.
Morata will lead the line for Atleti away at his former club Juventus on Tuesday in the Champions League. He does so having become the main man for club and country.
A recent run of seven goals in his last nine games for Atletico and Spain proved Morata is once again prolific after a traumatic transfer to west London.
The timing is good for Simeone too, with Diego Costa now out injured until 2020 and Morata is finally replacing the striker whose levels he never reached at Stamford Bridge.
The improvement comes after Chelsea sold Morata to make space for their own revelation Tammy Abraham, upon his return from a season on loan at Aston Villa.
Morata is repaying those in Madrid who took a punt on making his loan permanent at €65 million (£58m/$73m) despite scoring just six goals in six months last season.
During a disastrous time at Stamford Bridge, Morata was replaced by Olivier Giroud and Gonzalo Higuain with both Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri unable to get the best from him.
“I’ve played 15 official minutes, missed a penalty and they’re already killing me! So, I know what to expect,” were Morata's words after his Community Shield debut and it offered a bleak foreshadowing of how his time would develop.
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The 27-year-old's negative body language came to the fore both on and off the pitch. He had “something similar to depression”, in his own words, during his time at Chelsea where he failed to fit in with team-mates.
His goal droughts and tendency to pick up yellow cards led to him being dropped in big games against Barcelona and Manchester City with Eden Hazard taking a false nine role.
There was a period where Morata was booked once every 49 minutes during a 10-game goal drought. Conte had already called for Morata to add more aggression to his “polite” demeanour, before new boss Sarri came in and said: “He is a little bit fragile, from the mental point of view.”
And Morata revealed just how badly unsettled he got during his time in English football having missed out on the Spain squad for the 2018 World Cup.
He told Goal in June: "I had lost confidence in myself previously. I was very upset by the opinion of the people in England. I think they caught me in the middle of everything.
"I didn't quite feel loved or appreciated by the club or the fans. I started very well at Chelsea, but an injury, in the end, leaves you a bit stuck.
"As bad as it was, I still scored 15 goals and won the FA Cup... but I was out of the World Cup, and for me, that was the hardest thing that could happen to me in my life.
"I’ve dreamed of being able to play in a World Cup since I was 10 years old, and I chose Chelsea because I thought it would be the best club to later be able to play in the World Cup. Now, signing for Atletico has been the best thing that could happen to me in my life.
"I had a very bad time in London. In the end, I was training alone. I talked to Maurizio Sarri and he told me some things that I knew were not going to be as he had said. I was very nervous. My wife was in shock.
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"At Chelsea, there came a time when my team-mates, except for the Spaniards, well... you know, it is not the same when you play and you know that you give a pass to someone who is not going to do as well. You do not give the pass in the same way.
"Everyone who has played football once will understand that. And, in the end, it is a situation that you cannot control: it is neither about being positive or negative or about trying to have fun or being worried. It's the confidence that others have in you: your team-mates, the club... And I found it here at Atletico.
"I have said it many times: there is a moment in which there are things that surpass fame, money and everything. Thank God, I've been able to have a bit of all of this at Atletico, but I would love to be here every year so that I'm able to play at my highest level."
Morata did indeed start well at Chelsea with nine goals in his first 15 Premier League games, alongside four assists, but a back injury stopped him in his tracks.
Chelsea thought they were signing a winner and a goal machine but he never managed to produce it in the Premier League.
At Real Madrid, he had a goal every 65 minutes in La Liga and the Champions League and won both those competitions, as well as the Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.
He wasn't the main man, nor was he in Turin at Juventus where he scored in a Champions League final. He was a champion, though, and won two league titles and two domestic cups.
Morata would appear to be rehabilitated on his return to the Juventus Stadium, as the striking centre-piece of Simeone’s overhauled Atletico squad.