It is less than 24 hours after Aston Villa have clinched promotion back to the Premier League at Wembley, and the £127 million rebuilding job is already well underway.

The tradition of an open-bus tour to celebrate is abandoned, and Dean Smith is holed up at Villa Park with chief executive Christian Purslow and sporting director Jesus Garcia Pitarch, with the wheels in motion now the end of the club’s exile from the top-flight has been confirmed.

Twelve new signings have since followed over the next two months, with 12 players leaving, in a drastic but necessary reshaping of Smith’s squad as Villa bid to first stabilise this famous old club back in the top tier.

The strategy was clear: reduce the average age, reduce the average wage and increase the quality.

Purslow, an experienced operator who counts Liverpool and Chelsea among his former clubs, told Telegraph Sport: “Our brief when we appointed Dean and Jesus in October last year was to rebuild the squad in the summer, in either scenario.

“Two plans existed in terms of the players we monitored and obviously with promotion we were able to pursue the Plan A targets when we knew what the budget was.