David Luiz is a Marmite figure. One Spurs fan quipped on Twitter that the his signing was the best news Chelsea fans had received about the player, since he was sold.
He will add flair and character to the team, being the sort of big on-pitch personality that was all too scarce last season.
But there are also well rehearsed questions about his ability as a defender.
If, as seems the case, the club's aims include returning Chelsea to a restore point somewhere pre-Jose Mourinho – then this is clearly a step in that direction.
But the signing of a 29-year-old, deemed surplus to requirements two years back, on a fee not far off the £37m received for him from Paris Saint-Germain at his supposed peak, smacks of desperation.
Having gone through John Stones, Kalidou Koulibaly, and several others as options to succeed John Terry; to plump for a player who could only be signed on a three-year deal owing to his age again shows short-sightedness.
There will also be concerns about the constant retreading of old ground: Mourinho, Nemanja Matic, Romelu Lukaku (who Chelsea failed to get, despite much effort), and now Luiz.
Video: How deadline day unfolded at Chelsea and beyond
The dysfunction caused by constant managerial change is a given at most clubs these days.
But by so frequently recruiting from a pool of those already shipped out, questions are raised about the belief in the youth and scouting systems, as well as the quality of footballing contacts at the highest levels.
But, with signing-of-the-summer N'Golo Kante covering, this could provide an opportunity to deliver an Antonio Conte model that builds from the back to deliver fruits further up the pitch.
Marcos Alonso is a less well-known name: bought to provide cover at left back.
The son of a Barcelona player, and grandson of a Real Madrid stalwart, his pedigree is fine.
But he is best known here for unremarkable stints at Bolton and Sunderland, prior to recently showing more of his promise with Fiorentina.
Though, at £23m for a player likely to be on the fringes of the first team, this was yet another illustration of this overheated market.
Plus, this will be a signing not without controversy: Alonso was charged, though never tried, over the alleged drink drive death of a young woman in Madrid in 2011.
Chelsea will have to be prepared for the sort of negative headlines that marked his time at the Reebok.
The fact that Matt Maizga ended up at Vitesse Arnhem, very late in the day, showed the gap between he and first team success: as a series of other loan opportunities had, by then, failed to materialise.
Vitesse has long been a mooring spot, of questionable value, for the Blues' loan fleet: but in recent years has increasingly gone out of fashion with the club.
Now the preference is to get those who don't quite make the Stamford Bridge squad into a competitive posting somewhere they can truly grow – and Vitesse has developed a name as Chelsea's last chance saloon.
Having fended-off a speculative smash-and-grab by Schalke, Kurt Zouma is not far off returning.
But the real challenge may come next summer, when Anders Chrstensen's two-year loan to Borussia Monchengladbach comes to an end: he is highly-rated by Chelsea, but understood to be very at home out in Germany.
A flurry of other outgoing loan activity increased Blues' outsourced talent to a total of 37 players.
David Luiz's Chelsea career so far in pictures:
Most curious of those deals was the three-year rental contract between Chelsea and Juventus for Juan Cuadrado – which will surely be a permanent move, structured thus to please the accountants or agents.
Loic Remy's loan to Crystal Palace is exactly the deal the clubs failed to agree on in January: then Blues brought in Alexandre Pato to cover his anticipated absence, now they recruited nobody.
That does leave the squad short up top: with only Diego Costa, and that other early summer signing Michy Batshuayi, as out and out striker options.
The lack of any outward move for Dominic Solanke, still at odds with the club over a new contract, marginally elevates his prospects of making the first team.
Though game time is expected to be short for both he, and Nathaniel Chalobah – another one many had expected to be farmed-out.
The only other new arrival was goalkeeper Eduardo – from Dinamo Zagreb.
He gave up Champions League football, to occasionally watch Asmir Begovic play in the League Cup, and take home perhaps five times his Croatian salary.
Enough said.
