IT WAS on the eve of Hull City's Championship season-opener at home to Brighton last August that Steve Bruce was told of vice chairman Ehab Allam's very public ambitions for reaching the top six.
"Uh oh," said Bruce, feigning trepidation. "At least there's no pressure then."
For Bruce, one of football's eternal pragmatists, last summer represented the start of a three-year project at the KC Stadium.
The Championship had twice delivered success for the 52-year-old as manager of Birmingham City, but even he had his reservations a third promotion would be celebrated in his first attempt with the Tigers.
"I wouldn't have taken the job if I thought we had no chance, but if I'm honest I didn't think it would happen straight away," he reflected this week.
"It's such a tough division. I can remember talking about trying to do it in three years so to do it in one was well beyond my expectations."
Bruce did not just deliver on the Allams' play-off target. Within nine eventful months he has gone one better.
As the man to mastermind City's first automatic promotion to the top flight in 109 years of trying, Bruce exceeded both his and the Tigers' best hopes for 2012-13. And for that reason it is a campaign to rival all he has achieved in management.
Just for good measure, City's promotion had a compelling final chapter like no other.
While a 2-2 draw with Cardiff could never be accused of lacking drama, it was only when Leeds United claimed a 2-1 win over City's promotion rivals Watford that the runners-up spot was confirmed 16 minutes after full-time at the KC Stadium.
"It left me physically and mentally exhausted, I have to tell you," said Bruce.
"It must have been great entertainment if you weren't associated with Hull City.
"I've only been here a year but I've learned quickly it's part of this club's DNA. We'll never do things the easy way."
The pendulum's late swings between agony and ecstasy took its toll on Bruce.
He added: "On Saturday night I just went home and my wife cooked me a steak. I didn't even have a drink.
"I had a couple of bottles of water and watched Match of the Day. I was too tired to do anything else.
"It had got to me that badly, I didn't feel up for doing a lot. It was relief more than anything.
"In the end I was more pleased for everyone else. To see the joy on peoples' faces on Saturday was very special.
"To have the feel-good factor around the city again is great. It's tough times, here more than most, so I'm delighted to see Premier League football coming back to this area."
The path has led to a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but it is the obstacles overcome along the way that provide Bruce with most satisfaction.
Despite losing strikers Matty Fryatt and Sone Aluko to long-term injuries, a contributory factor in City finishing the season without a goalscorer in double figures, the Tigers spent just four and a half weeks outside of the top two after passing the halfway mark of the campaign with a 2-1 win at Derby on December 21.
"We've had to do it the hard way with all the injuries, that's for sure," he said.
"To lose Matty Fryatt, who had scored 16 goals the year before, for most of the season was huge and then it became compounded by Aluko.
"I sounded like a broken record about how much we missed them, but you can't easily replace that sort of quality.
"We were huffing and puffing a bit in the second half of the season because any team is only as good as its strikers. They are the ones who do something different.
"We struggled for someone to consistently put the ball in the back of the net after Christmas so it's huge credit to the squad that we managed to get over the line. We managed to cope and that was the main thing."
City's golden season ends a three-year wait for the Premier League in these parts.
After tumbling out of the top flight in 2010 in financial disarray, Bruce inherited a club almost entirely rebuilt by predecessors Nigel Pearson and Nick Barmby. However, although the foundations were laid by others, Bruce has very much been his own man.
Of the 14 players to start 20 Championship games or more this season, eight were recruited by Bruce. Two more forgotten men, Jay Simpson and Paul McShane, were also as good as new, and only James Chester, Robert Koren, Jack Hobbs and Corry Evans could really boast of surviving the revolution.
Bruce said: "The big compliment I have to give to the players is the speed at which it all came together.
"All the players we signed, especially the loan players, came in and hit the ground running.
"There's only probably Nick Proschwitz who's struggled to settle in the Championship, but everyone else came in and made a quick impact.
"That was vitally important when I look back at the season and the success we had."
Bruce also offers his heartfelt thanks to the Tigers' board, most notably father and son pairing Assem and Ehab Allam. Not only for their financial support in the transfer market but also for their continued persistence.
Twelve months ago, as the club began its search for Barmby's successor, Bruce initially needed convincing that City would be the club for him after nine months out of the game. The Allams, though, would not be put off.
"When you're in the Premier League and your club is highlighted every week, you know all about it," he explained.
"I don't mean this to be disrespectful in any way, but you don't take much notice of Hull unless you live in and around the city.
"It's a footballing outpost really that doesn't get much national coverage so when I first got the call I probably needed some convincing.
"But when I met the owners, who really sold the place to me, I thought about it and the more I did, the more I thought why not?"
Why not, indeed. Eleven months after his high-profile unveiling, Bruce can no longer think of a single reason.
