When I spent a few days with Nottingham Forest at the end of their pre-season in Spain, I knew they would be third in the table at the end of the year.
Okay, maybe not.
But what I will say is that it was abundantly clear that with a full summer under Nuna Espirito Santo, the atmosphere among his squad was hot and they seemed to be closer than ever.
It's easy to forget, but Nuno spent the awful majority of last season battling a relegation battle, points deductions and a bloated squad – but Forest are now benefiting from what he describes as an obsession with improvement in all areas of the game.
What became clear from sitting down with the 50-year-old was how protective he feels about this group. A group he made clear in this exclusive interview that he and the club decided they wanted to stay together because they believed in the players' potential.
Before facing his former club Wolverhampton Wanderers Monday Night Football, Espirito Santo said Sky Sports to enjoy his return to Molineux.
“Sure, sure. We spent four years there. It was nice. I think we'll remember it forever. The coaching staff, the players, Morgan (Gibbs-White) coming back. It's pretty nice.”
Forest, the surprise package of the Premier League this season, will be bidding for their sixth straight win. Speaking on Friday, Nuno said there was little time to reflect on his impressive first half of the season.
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Nottingham Forest's Premier League win against Tottenham.
He believes Forest's success this term is based on sticking to the principles laid out during the 2023/24 campaign.
Repeat, repeat, repeat.
“You start with a routine, and when you achieve a routine, it becomes a habit. And inside the field, if you have habits and play without knowing that your teammates will be in certain positions, sometimes that doesn't happen.
“When it happens, it clicks. It flows.”
So how does he block out the noise gathering around his Champions League contenders?
“We've stuck to the same message since day one,” says Espirito Santo. “This is what we're obsessed with. This is how we work and believe we should do things – focus on one game at a time.
“Focus on the training day. Try to look at all the exercises, improve the performance and results of the players, help.
“But there is no distraction because we are not changing. This is how we approach the competition.”
Espirito Santo admits it will be harder to keep Forest in the Premier League's top four than it was to get them there.
Forest have far exceeded expectations this season after sealing top flight safety on the final day of the 2023-24 campaign with a 2-1 win at Burnley. So does Nuno believe his side can sustain their remarkable climb up the table?
“I'm very pleased, very pleased, proud, happy,” he says when asked to reflect on his first 12 months in charge.
“I know that there are not many teams that can say that they have a healthy team. We managed to keep the core of the team from last season. We had a difficult moment, but it was crucial that we decided together to go with a quality team.
“We will believe and we will do it again, improving what we have to improve. We are halfway there, but we are proud of what we have done. Now comes the big challenge.
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Highlights from the Premier League match between Everton and Nottingham Forest.
“Can we do it again? Are we going to face the same opponents? Can we compete again and again against these tough opponents … the same way we did in the first round.”
Nunn's side bid farewell to 2024 with a fifth straight win, Sunday's 2-0 win against Everton ensuring they start the new year in third place.
Forest's current winning streak is their longest in the Premier League since the 1994-95 season when they finished third behind champions Blackburn and Manchester United under former boss Frank Clarke.
After Monday's trip to Molineux, Forest play three consecutive home games against Luton, in the FA Cup, Liverpool and Southampton.
Every passing positive result and performance seems like an affront to pre-season predictions that the team would once again contend, but Nuno dismissed that theory.
“It's not about proving people wrong, it's not about that,” he insists.
“It's about improvement, about self-respect, about mutual connection with teammates. It's about doing the task together, not individually.
“How can I improve if I'm doing things right? That's what drives us, that's what drives us. We don't have to prove anything to anyone. We have to prove to ourselves that we want it, we want to compete and play football in a good way.
“In a way that our fans are satisfied after the game. In a way that we can return to our families and feel that we have done well. We go again with the same motivation, regardless of the result we had before.
“But we go into next week with the same goal, with the same idea to compete again. That's what's important.”
This will be the fourth managerial meeting between the Portuguese duo Vitor Pereira and Espirito Santo.
The previous three meetings were between Rio Ave and Porto in the 2012-13 campaign and Nuno's Porto were unbeaten in those games, winning twice.
Espirito Santo is unbeaten in four managerial meetings against Wolves since leaving Molineux, drawing both games as Forest boss at the City Ground.
His only Premier League return to the old ground in August 2021 resulted in a narrow victory during his short spell as Tottenham boss.
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Jamie Carragher assesses whether Nottingham Forest can emulate Leicester and become surprise Premier League winners this season.
Given Forest's excellent away record this season, those fans making the short trip across the Midlands will be assured of another three points on the road thanks to the team spirit that Espirito Santo has instilled.
“That's the foundation,” says the owner of the Forest with a smile. “It's the foundation of everything. Everything I told you before… without this connection is impossible.
“If you don't have a strong bond among your colleagues, how can you – after a bad moment – leave again with the same motivation, look over your shoulder and say, let's do it again. This is the foundation.
“I think we are building a good one, but we still have a lot of things that can make us stronger and stronger in terms of relationships every day.
“We in the team… when I say the coaching staff, the players, the staff that works at the training ground, everyone. Then the fans, and we are also improving. I think the fans trust us more.
“They believe in us. They know we're going to compete and that's what we can promise them. We're going to compete.”
We see a certain side of Nuno in his press conferences and on the touchline at games, but what is becoming increasingly apparent to me is that there is another side that has created a special bond between this group of players and the man in charge.
With their current defensive steel and lethal attack linked to all of the above – why can't they have a genuine choice for a position in the Champions League?
After all, they won't have European football to contend with like many others.
Watch Wolves v Nottingham Forest on Monday Night Football, kick-off 8pm