When Villarreal sacked their manager at the end of last season despite the fact that he had got them Europa League qualification it was a statement of ambition – they were tired of just being a club everyone admired, instead they wanted to finally win something.
Veterans of four semi-final defeats and a La Liga runners-up spot, the club from the east coast of Spain want a trophy and they had fired a perfectly adequate coach in Javi Calleja, to bring in a specialist Unai 'three Europa Leagues' Emery.
Now they stand on the brink again.