Eddie Howe has already secured the best season of his managerial career regardless of what happens in Newcastle United's last three games of the Premier League campaign.
A guaranteed top six finish, a place in Europe and an all round success story is already in the bag for Howe and his backroom team. Some might say it's tough at the top in football, but Howe knows fine well it can arguably be tougher at the bottom.
For when Howe took over at AFC Bournemouth as a young manager his club were threatened by relegation to the Conference. The then League Two side had bailiffs knocking on the door and the Toon boss even had to fork out of his own pocket to buy training equipment.
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As Howe and Tindall find themselves on the brink of the Champions League and the bright lights of Europe with nights in Milan, Barcelona or Dortmund on the horizon, it is all a far cry from somehow over turning a 17-point deficit and staving off the threat of relegation from League Two. When asked whether he and his assistant Jason Tindall at that stage dared dream of taking on the best in Europe, Howe told Chronicle Live: "No! "I don't think those conversations ever came up!
"That wasn't part of our conversations no. I think we always hoped, and you always dream when you starting out, of what the future may look like.
"You wonder how far you can go. But I think that it's a good thing because our feet were firmly on the floor. And it's like now, very much being in the moment of focusing on where you are now. You try to do the best job you can at that moment."
If Newcastle do make it, Howe's journey from saving Bournemouth and leading them up the divisions before taking on the Newcastle job and emulating Sir Bobby Robson, will be one of the remarkable stories in English football in years to come. For Howe it is also the chance to look at how far he has climbed the managerial ladder.
He said: "Certainly it is nice to reflect back and look back and see how far we've come. But it never stops you wanting more.
"So where ever your target is at that moment you refocus at that moment. So I'm not satisfied with what we have now, I want more. That will always be the case hopefully."
Howe feels that those early experiences as Bournemouth boss, which at one point saw a player knocking his door to explain he could not pay his mortgage, will hold him in good stead.
Howe added: "I thought the first season I had in management was the best grounding I could have as a manager. "I sort of knew it at the time.
"Players not getting paid, players coming in and saying: 'I can't pay my mortgage'. Us ourselves buying equipment for the club because wanted to do the best job we could.
"It was almost like - and I knew it at the time - it felt like 10 years just six months into management! "You experience things some managers will never experience "I was very grateful for that.
"Obviously, I was grateful for the fact we were successful as well, it enabled us to launch our career really. But it was a great grounding and means we've never taken anything for granted. Or got ahead of ourselves. We are just very grateful for the situation we're in."
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