Football is a results business, no-one disputes that.
Having changed divisions more times than any club in the history of English football Birmingham City are aware of that fact more than anyone else.
And after several seasons of poor results, this campaign’s upturn has been an oasis in a desert of anxiety.
A stress-free league position, a very respectable home record and an impressively functional team have brought much-needed relief - even if there are bumps in the road to come .
Garry Monk , whose arrival at Blues just under a year ago, has been rightly credited for masterminding all of those facets.
But it’s not a one-man job and the Blues boss has given an intriguing insight into how he has brought life to a beleagured set of players and brought pride back to St Andrew’s.
And understanding what Birmingham City have always been as a club has been central to that.
“A big thing when we came in at the end of last season in the relegation fight - was kind of that siege mentality,” Monk told talkSPORT’s Tom Ross.
“But I think that suits the club, I also think it’s a club that needs to have that, it needs to have as part of their identity, a team that will fight and scrap.
“As well as show quality and organisation and hopefully good football at times, it’s to show that other side of it, which I think this club demands.
“It’s setting the environment here right, a hard-working environment, a standard-setting environment.
“Once you get into that routine the players have to adhere to that and take responsibility for that.
“Having a good pre-season together, having a small squad - obviously those circumstances were dictated by our situation.
“Having those kinds of odds against us, again helps create that mentality and we have tried to use that to best effect.”
Unity is a word that is never far from Monk’s lips.
At the risk of borrowing a phrase from the Westminster lexicon, Monk arrived knowing that ‘Stronger Together’ was the only way forward.
Since then he has tried to cajole everyone in the entire St Andrew’s church into forming a single entity by harnessing Blues' rediscovered desire to connect players and supporters.
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“The club have done great work," he continued.
"The community work we have done has helped me to help the players realise what’s going on, what the community means to this club and how they can buy into that.
“And also for myself to be able to communicate with the fans and show them ‘You have got a team and a group of people who do care’ and that it’s not rubbish, it’s not politics, I am not saying something to try and get something else, it’s genuine.
“You find you work at your best when you feel that connection. I have been at clubs where I have seen it on that level and it makes you play and work that much harder.
“And it gives you a better chance of being successful because everyone is together.
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“You have to be on the same page to be successful in any business or any walk of life. You can’t have anything without it.
“I keep going back to that commitment but that’s the most important word we will ever use.
“True commitment to what we are doing here and really immerse yourself in it, I think everyone deserves huge credit, from staff, to players, to staff at the club, to the fans themselves.
“It has really shown if we put that foundation in place what we can be like as a club again.
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“The fans have seen it themselves when it’s been at its best at this club over the years and it’s trying to show them that again after a couple of what have been really difficult years for the club.”
Indeed ‘commitment’ is the one word used more regularly than ‘unity’ - Monk makes no apologies for repeating it again and again and again and...
“It is the most important thing you can have. No matter how good or poor or indifferent you are, without commitment you can’t do anything.
“Especially when you are talking about a football team. Without commitment you are nothing.
"In sport it will always be the biggest judgement in terms of success is what you achieve, it’s promotions, it’s winning leagues or winning cups - that is the ultimate bar for success.
“But there are other ways of judging success as well and I think a big success this season has been how committed everyone’s been.
“The players, the staff, the staff at the club, the community, how committed the fans have been with us. That's something that we are really, really proud of.
“That’s the foundation you can then go on to be judged for the ultimate success - winning things.
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“We are not at that point, our fight is to show that commitment and put that foundation in place.”
In terms of the Xs and Os of tactics Monk has been necessarily pragmatic.
While some of his predecessors have asked the players to play pretty football, much as Monk did at Swansea in his early days in management, he has been unapologetic in producing a team plays ‘a certain way’.
“It’s about identifying what strengths we have and trying to put a team on the pitch to play to those strengths.
“We have done that more often than not this season and when you see the result of it - especially early on in the season - it bring clarity, several more buy into it and see that’s the right way forward.
“It’s always about maintaining those standards and if you get a setback get back to those standards as quickly as you can and fight for it. We have been a fighting team this season. “
And it’s produced results - which we know is what football demands. And it’s been a joint effort, which is what the community demands.
