Fulham were staring down the barrel of relegation to League One but Slavisa Jokanovic has breathed new life into the squad.
After a disastrous eight-week period between November and December without a permanent head coach, the Serbian was finally announced at the end of the festive period.
But not before the announcement of a transfer embargo imposed on the club by the Football League for a defiance of Financial Fair Play rules.
The embargo nullified any chance for Jokanovic to make an immediate impact at the club in terms of personnel, restricting the club to loans and free transfers only in January.
As the month crawled on, it appeared the only dealings would be the suicidal sales of Ross McCormack and Moussa Dembele - the forwards who have scored 24 goals between them.
The Whites were only an ominous three points points away from the drop zone, and without the ability to reinvest, losing both would surely have cost them their place in the Championship.
But credit needs to be paid where due; Fulham managed to hold on to their two prized possession.
The Cottagers are currently the joint-third top scorers in the league and with the club lingering in 19th, it says a lot about the state of their defensive work up until this point.
But they have made moves where possible to shore it up - the loan signings of Rohan Ince, Michael Madl and the return of Fernando Amorebieta from Middlesbrough will help Jokanovic to restore the Whites’ fortunes.
Ince, 23, arrived on a loan deal until the remainder of the season from Brighton and Hove Albion.
He was linked with a move to the Premier League with Liverpool only last year, and was labelled young player of the year for Brighton in his first year at the club.
The former Chelsea academy product can play as a centre back, but is predominantly a defensive midfielder - an area which Fulham have desperately been lacking in this season.
Neither Jamie O’Hara nor Tom Cairney, both of who play in the centre of the pitch, have sufficient grit to protect what has proven to be a fragile back four.
Sakari Mattila is another who has not been able to adequately provide the back four the cover they need - particularly with Luke Garbutt’s tendency to push forward.
Ince’s arrival should signal a tougher Fulham, as will the return of Amorebieta. The tough-tackling centre-back will provide a more solid structure for the Whites in the Championship.
The Venezuelan international can prove a clumsy figure at times, and is no stranger to a rash tackle, but he will improve the Cottagers’ current predicament.
The acquisition of Madl, on loan from Austrian team Sturm Graz, could really help the Whites too - the Austrian comes with rave reviews, and at the minute he doesn’t have the greatest bar to live up to.
And in their draw with Derby on Saturday, the hosts showed that they were more than able to compete with some of the best in the league - as they did with Hull in a narrow 1-0 defeat.
Having strengthened their squad, and in some ways the bulk of that was done by not selling their two key strikers, Fulham have recovered from what was seemingly a damning January.
They were staring in the face of a second relegation in three years, but with McCormack and Dembele steering the ship, and a new manager at the helm, they should find their way to safer waters sooner rather than later.
