"From -17 to Europe", read a flag in the away end at the Anoeta Stadium, as Bournemouth embarked on the first European campaign in the club's 127-year history.
A 2-1 victory at Real Sociedad in their Europa League opener suggested they are not ready to stop there.
It is now 11 years since the Cherries were first promoted to the Premier League, meaning a generation of supporters view top-flight football as the norm. From that perspective, qualifying for and playing in Europe might appear the next logical step for a well-run and ambitious club.
"It's a brilliant win in our first European game," manager Marco Rose told TNT Sports. "It's brilliant for the club and the 2,000 fans from Bournemouth."
For most of those celebrating, the whole thing still seems surreal. Just 18 years ago the club was on the brink. A 10-point deduction for entering administration resulted in relegation to League Two. To stay in the Football League for the 2008-09 season, Bournemouth had to accept a 17-point deduction and agree not to appeal, after it was ruled that they had not met the terms for exiting administration because no Company Voluntary Arrangement could be agreed.
In San Sebastian, that history was a long way off. Up against a Real Sociedad side led by the World Cup-winning forward Mikel Oyarzabal, and who beat Atletico Madrid to win the Copa del Rey last season, Bournemouth were dominant for 45 minutes, winning the ball back high up the pitch and creating chances even against a set defence.
The Basque side came out fighting after the break, and the visitors' first-half exuberance appeared to catch up with them. Aided by the sharp reflexes of Djordje Petrovic in goal, they held on.
"It was very intense and tough," Rose said. "Brilliant first half in everything. The way we won balls and the possession high up. In the second half, we needed to suffer because we were not so sharp."
The side was led out by Adam Smith, who joined on loan during the 2010-11 campaign, returned permanently in 2014 and has approaching 400 league appearances for the club. At 35 years and 141 days, he became the oldest English outfielder to make his debut in major European competition since Ipswich's Reginald Pickett in 1962.
"It is a big occasion. A big moment for the club, and they should be applauded for it," former Cherries full-back Charlie Daniels said on BBC Radio Solent.
The club's rise is usually traced to the appointment of Eddie Howe in January 2009, who guided them to safety nine points clear of the relegation zone despite the deduction, and who six and a half years later had taken a transformed Bournemouth to the Premier League.
The flag, though, is the document that matters, and it should be read carefully. It does not describe a journey in years. It describes a journey in points: from minus seventeen to Europe.
Stated that way, the relationship is a simple one. Seventeen points, correctly applied, are worth a European campaign. The deduction was not the low point of the story. It was the starting line.
The Department of Unnecessary Research notes that this reframes the 2008-09 season considerably. A team that finished nine points clear of relegation having begun on minus seventeen was, before the deduction was applied, twenty-six points clear of the drop, and no table published that season showed it.
The Department further recommends that all league tables be restated against each club's starting position, which would place Bournemouth seventeen points ahead of a field that started on zero and has never had to explain itself. Nobody has yet established how many points a European campaign is actually worth. Bournemouth's supporters have settled on seventeen.