After Fulham's final game of last season, a 2-0 home defeat to a resurgent Manchester City, Marco Silva could have been celebrating his side breaking their record top-flight points tally.
Instead, he was already looking forward to the next target. Despite setting that benchmark, five defeats in the Cottagers' final seven games had put paid to hopes of a first European campaign in over a decade, and the ever-demanding Silva was aiming for more.
He told his players to expect to break that same record again in 2025/26. An aspirational feat at the time, and doubly so after a summer of struggle in the transfer market.
Until Deadline Day, Fulham had only added only back-up goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte to their ranks. Even then, Fulham still felt left behind even after the late signings of wingers Kevin and Samuel Chukwueze, with only Aston Villa spending less.
But Silva is not one for turning. On the same day Jose Mourinho said former club Fenerbahce were not at his "cultural level", the man once described as his next incarnation was in equally defiant mood.
In fairness, this is not his first rodeo. Fulham lost one of their best modern-day strikers in Aleksandr Mitrovic and one of their best modern-day midfielders in Joao Palhinha in consecutive summers yet the head coach has managed to rouse his side on each occasion.
When he tells Sky Sports his ambition is unwavering, he has the receipts to prove it.
"We don't have time to change, but I don't want to change," he says. "Of course, we expected more in the market. It was difficult, waiting until the last day for the deadline signings. But now we are not going to change.
"I want to see the guys in front of me with the same ambition. And I know that they have it because no one of us is going to accept that we are going to drop our expectations just because the market was difficult for us.
"It's very easy. We spent a lot of time in the middle of the table, around the top 10 last season. Before the two last months of the season, we were in positions to fight for the European places.
"Some of the other teams around us did very well, but we broke that points tally. That is the big thing. And if we can break it again, for sure we will be in the top half of the table, and then we can fight for something important."
Of those deadline day arrivals, a 20-minute cameo has been enough for Brazilian winger Kevin to excite Fulham fans. His debut lit up a previously dour game with Leeds last weekend, with a driving run and shot winning the corner which brought their 94th-minute winner, and the 22-year-old's first chant was already coined by full-time.
Silva almost seems drawn to working with Brazilian wingers in the Premier League. He was the one who first brought Richarlison to this country with Watford, who gave Willian a renaissance in west London aged 33 and then again at 36.
Of course, there is a huge clamour already for Kevin to start Saturday's derby with Brentford, live on Sky Sports.
Silva is delighted, though not surprised, with the rapport he has already developed at Craven Cottage. But even though the head coach spent much of his summer persuading the Fulham hierarchy to complete his club-record transfer, he is typically insistent on not rushing the latest arrival into the team.
"When you come and show quality, people will respect you, they will understand why you came in. Some people take more time to do it, some people can have an impact straight away.
"He probably surprised some people, but not the ones who had seen him in training. When you can have that impact with the fans, I think that is 20 per cent of your job done already. You just have to keep doing it.
"I have to understand him better on and off the pitch, of course, but that will come with the time. But until now, just good things to speak about him. And more than that, he has the talent for us to work with. I love when I have this type of players to work with.
"I pushed the club to sign him because, as you know, he was not a cheap player but they really did their best to get him in and we managed it.
"I was looking for a more one-v-one player, someone who can stretch a team and when we play against teams who are difficult to break down, can find things in those situations. He is that type of player, he is very brave with the ball."
Kevin can claim his role in helping Fulham to their first win of the season in arguably their worst performance of the campaign.
Silva can, and has, pointed to the negative role VAR has had on his side's form in their previous three games, with contentious decisions going against them against Manchester United and Chelsea, and an admission from the PGMOL that Josh King's opener against the latter should have stood.
Silva is an open sceptic of the technology given the hard time it has given his side on the one hand. "Not only this season," he points out when the matter is raised.
On the other, the head coach will not countenance any excuses from the Fulham dressing room.
"I don't want the players to feel that we have been very unfortunate, or VAR is coming against us every single time," he insists. "Sometimes it's impossible because the things are so clear, and it can be so difficult to understand. But my words with them are always the same - don't focus on things that we cannot control.
"We want just to play football that we love and to be the team that is going in the right direction because everybody deserves it. It doesn't matter who you are playing, if it's a big club or Fulham or Brentford, like in the next game. We have to be just thinking that things are going to be normal on the pitch."
With 13 goals in the three west London derbies at Craven Cottage since Brentford's Premier League promotion, Silva will not be the only one hoping it is the quality of football, rather than refereeing performances, taking the headlines on Saturday night.
If Craven Cottage's new star man Kevin turns up again, you'd imagine it will be.
Watch Fulham vs Brentford live on Sky Sports Premier League from 7.45pm on Saturday, kick-off 8pm.