Over the past 12 months, Manchester City have moved smartly to sign some of their most important players to long-term deals.
In the last week alone, Joao Cancelo agreed a new contract that will keep him at the club until 2027 while highly-rated youngsters James McAtee, Josh Wilson-Esbrand and Oscar Bobb have also signed extensions.
Kevin De Bruyne, Ruben Dias, Ederson, John Stones and Cole Palmer have also renewed contracts in the past year. Phil Foden is expected to follow suit while there have also been reports of potential new deals for Bernardo Silva and Rodri.
A core of players committing their futures to the club keeps stability, which should give them a platform for sustained success.
Clubs are always likely to have a churn of players but the ideal situation is seen as having a couple of players coming in and out to keep a freshness and guard against too many players growing old together.
Jack Grealish was the only new arrival last summer and the England international has added a spark and originality to the first-team squad even if his performances have not quite exploded yet.
A new striker is likely to be added before the start of the next campaign, which will add a new alternative with City needing to evolve their playing style so they don't become easy to stop.
Pep Guardiola gives the credit to director of football Txiki Begiristain and the club for being able to keep a strong squad together.
Getty Images"All of them love to play football, have been incredibly focussed for many years and we have to keep them and the club has done brilliantly," he said ahead of Saturday's FA Cup clash with Fulham.
"Every season it has to move a little bit, in these years with the pandemic situation it's difficult for every club around the world, I don't know what is going to happen.
"But the soul and heart of the team is young and to keep it for the next years is so important."
Guardiola had settled squads at Barcelona and Bayern Munich but it hasn't always been the same in his five-and-a-half years in England.
The first team was short of quality when he took over and there was a major overhaul in the first three transfer windows as he got the shape and depth he wanted.
"You cannot replace 11 players in one season in a transfer window," Guardiola added. "The core, the soul of the team has to stay as much as possible. When you move a few players, it is not possible that it is 10 players."
That stability should also help with what would be the biggest contract renewal of all, that of Guardiola himself.
The City boss has 18 months remaining on his current deal which would take him to seven years at the club - considerably longer than he has been in previous coaching roles.
He says the recent tranche of extensions reflect the club's focus on the future and that he remains concentrated on the immediate target of success.
"The manager has to work today, today, today, not even tomorrow but the club has to especially work for tomorrow, after tomorrow, for the next month, the next year," he said.
"They can never stop and the decision the club has made to extend the contract for the players in the academy or extend the contract for Joao is because they are working for the future and they have to do this."
Not only does it keep a strong base, but it protects them in the transfer market from losing valuable players for free.
Many stars are now seeing out their contracts and leaving their clubs for nothing with Kylian Mbappe, Paul Pogba, Ousmane Dembele and Antonio Rudiger among the free agents this summer.
Getty Images There are players whose contracts are running down, not least Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, who have 18 months left, but City are in one of the strongest positions of the biggest clubs in Europe.
Perhaps more importantly, City also have a solid group of players that have worked for Guardiola, understand his methods and credit the Catalan with improving them individually.
Cancelo, Riyad Mahrez and other first-team players have taken time to acclimatise to his demands and learn the playing philosophy, but have been devastating since they adapted.
The City boss has refused to look too far into the future, fearing he could get stale or run out of energy. He famously took a year out of the game when he was shattered after his time at Barca came to an end.
But the intensity and the glare of managing City is far less and his players continue to respond to his leadership, with no signs of a drop in desire to win major trophies.
The club will not put pressure on him to sign a new deal and Guardiola has not ruled out extending his stay.
He does have other ambitions - not least coaching at international level, which he has hinted would be his next role.
City have been adept at signing up much of their squad to long-term deals, but convincing Guardiola to stay longer would be the biggest coup of all.