There was also Victor Osimhen. Al Hilal supposedly put a verbal offer worth 130 million euros to Galatasaray through intermediaries last Wednesday, per Sky's Florian Plettenberg, and were told the Nigerian is not for sale at any price this summer. He is 27, has declined a Saudi move once already, and wants the Champions League.

And there is Ollie Watkins, who said yes after agreeing to personal terms earlier this week. Al Hilal lodged a formal bid worth 45 million euros with add-ons on Tuesday, short of the 60 million Aston Villa value him at, after two earlier approaches were turned down.

So what has the club actually arrived at? A 30-year-old rather than a 33-year-old who will not move and a 27-year-old whose club will not sell. A fee in the forties rather than one in the hundreds. A striker who wants the move. What they have not arrived at however, is a way of registering him.

Ahead of this season the league association closed the loophole that let clubs park foreign teenagers in under-21 lists and promote them when a senior foreigner was unavailable. Ten foreigners may now be registered for the first team and eight named on any matchday, and Al Hilal are currently well above that.

Mohamed Kader Meite is Ivorian and 18, so he takes a senior slot rather than a youth one. Crysencio Summerville arrived from West Ham in July. Add Yassine Bounou, Ruben Neves, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Theo Hernandez, Joao Cancelo, Malcom, Marcos Leonardo, Darwin Nunez and Karim Benzema, and you quickly realise that the numbers do not add up. Nunez is close to Trabzonspor, Malcom reportedly to Al-Diriyah but it’s Benzema’s slot that Watkins needs.

But the legendary Frenchman is not going to go quietly. Benzema wants the final year of a deal running to June 2027 paid in full before he signs a termination, and part of his salary is reported to come from bodies linked to the league rather than the club alone, so the sign-off is not Al Hilal's to give alone. He scored the penalty in the 4-2 win over Al-Faisaly and came off in the 70th minute, making his view of it plain on the walk to the bench. Inzaghi afterwards: "It's normal that he wants to play every match, and I understand him."

Which brings us to what Watkins might offer Inzaghi this season. Sixteen goals in 37 Premier League appearances last year, five more in 15 Europa ties on the way to Villa's win over Freiburg in the final, and 108 across six years at Villa Park. Thirty-three of those league appearances were starts.

That last number matters more than it looks. Al Hilal spent last season patching a forward line around injuries, and the man they want to move on has managed roughly a dozen appearances since February. Watkins turns up. Across a league season, the King's Cup and the Champions League Elite, availability is almost as important as his finishing ability.

Watkins won’t have it all his own way in the SPL if he does join however. He has spent six seasons at Villa exploiting space behind the last line and capitalizing on the sort of structure that Unai Emery provides his team, but Al Hilal are seldom afforded the kind of space he might be used to. 

So if Ollie Watkins does decide to join, where does a 38-year-old Ballon d'Or winner go in the third week of August?

Turkey seems the most logical option. A Spor reported this week that Benzema's representatives offered him to Trabzonspor, who have just signed Mohamed Salah and are still short of a centre-forward, but the links feel agent driven rather than from the club. Benfica were interested when Jose Mourinho took the job in Lisbon, having worked together at Real Madrid.

Lyon, the romantic option, he closed himself. Asked in April about a return to the club where he made 148 appearances before Madrid, Benzema said: "Why not go and work there after, but as a player, no."

The likeliest answer is the least cinematic. His image rights arrangement in the Kingdom is reported to run to 2030, part of why he stayed in Saudi Arabia in February with European offers on the table. Another Roshn League club would have to empty a foreign slot of its own before registration closes on 6 September, a tall order this late in a window. Sitting still and collecting what he is owed is also an option, and on current evidence it is the one he is taking.

Al Hilal are at Al-Fayha in Dammam on Thursday night. Benzema is still their number nine, Watkins is still an Aston Villa player, and yet all eyes will be on who Inzaghi chooses upfront.