It is eminently plausible that the Aberdeen career of Christian Ramirez may be entering its final days.
But if he has any more goals to offer the Dons’ cause, they might just be the most important ones he has ever contributed.
The stature of Aberdeen’s new striker and the fee invested to secure him indicate that Bojan Miovski will be the undisputed focus of the team’s attack this season, relegating Ramirez to a secondary status unfitting for a player of his age, profile and salary.
It is likely in everyone’s interests for Ramirez to find a more comfortable home, and but for the complexity in bringing Miovski into the country he may never have returned from his summer in the States.
But here he is, and, while the Dons remain unable to field their intriguing new addition, the weight of navigating the team through these crucial ties falls upon the shoulders of his predecessor.
Aberdeen’s seasonal target list will always include lifting a cup, and while they cannot complete that mission this early they could find their chances halved before the end of July if they don’t mind their business in group fixtures with little margin for error.
If proof were needed that, whatever the depth of a player’s input, they will always be most remembered for that which aids the collection of trophies, it arrived in sad fashion this weekend.
Davie Robb did many, many things in Aberdeen’s colours technically and aesthetically superior to the sclaff which won this competition in 1976, but every obituary of the late Pittodrie legend rightly led on one of the scruffiest of his 98 Dons goals.
Ramirez may not still be around when this season’s edition reaches its climax – but if Aberdeen are, he will have had a significant hand in it.