Brendan Rodgers has declared the story of the season as incredible
The Swansea City manager was back in work and preparing his side for the biggest day of their lives against Reading next Monday at Wembley where the two sides will go head to head for a place in next season's Premier League.
Rodgers will line up against his former club in the final and told the Evening Post "Over 17 years as a coach and manager that was my only disappointment
"But I feel it has given me so much. In adversity you look at yourself, you look at ways in which to improve.
"I think that indirectly, Reading could end up being the best experience for me even though it was disappointing.
"To work how I work was going to need more than six months," he points out now. "When I took the job, I was going to a club that was on a downer having just missed out in the play-offs — they had lost a manager who was revered around the place.
"I was led to believe the club was looking for a new identity in terms of the playing style, and looking to move forward with young players.
"I had a three-year plan where in the third year I felt we could be challenging at the top of the table.
"I wanted to introduce the sort of philosophy we have at Swansea — my philosophy — and you cannot get that overnight.
"And because I thought I had time, I was really treating that first season as a transition.
"I thought if I was going to get time at any club, it would be Reading, but in the end that wasn't the case.
"If I'd known I wasn't going to get time, I would obviously have done things differently," he says.
"I would have had to compromise.
"Our story this year has been incredible," he concedes. "We have got one more game to achieve a dream, and arguably a miracle."