Three months after playing in the semi-final of one competition and coming agonisingly close to securing a place in this season's Champions League, West Ham are about to start the campaign in another.
And this time it's against opponents who two years ago were part of a league where a third of clubs had a ground capacity of 4,000.
The frustrations felt at defeat over two legs to Eintracht Frankfurt in May was only compounded as the German side went on to beat Rangers in the final.
So, instead of taking their place in Europe's number one club competition for the first time, the Hammers find themselves in the Europa Conference League.