There was something different about Tottenham's first day in Frankfurt and perhaps it was the weight of a season leaning on it all.
For so much is riding on Thursday night's Europa League quarter-final second leg in what is set to be a cauldron of unwelcoming noise at the Deutsche Bank Park. One game will decide whether Tottenham's campaign is over and potentially whether Ange Postecoglou's tenure at Spurs will come to a close.
That's football for you and the extremes it brings. Ninety minutes or so can decide whether a season is an utter failure or something to celebrate.
There was a certain kind of gallows humour among the English media in the room as they waited for the two pre-match press conferences to begin. Tottenham's flight from the UK had been delayed and they did not arrive until an hour after their media duties were meant to begin.
The added time gave plenty of pause for thought about what comes next, for Tottenham have another press conference scheduled for Saturday morning. The email invite stated: "Ange Postecoglou will preview our Premier League fixture against Nottingham Forest."
Of course, there's a possibility that he might not. It could be Matt Wells or Ryan Mason taking that press conference if the worst case scenario plays out in Frankfurt and chairman Daniel Levy decides that the Australian's time is done.
Micky van de Ven certainly got strongly behind Postecoglou when he sat down to begin his press conference.
"We all still have the trust in the gaffer and still have trust in the way he's playing, so tomorrow we want to win the game of course for him, but also for us, also for the club, and also for the fans," he said.
"It hasn't been a really good season, but it's a big game for us and of course we want to achieve something special this season. I think this is the best way to do it."
Van de Ven gave Postecoglou his full backing despite the head coach having managed his minutes carefully after a season blighted by hamstring problems, which led to the young Dutchman working with outside specialists to work on the way he runs.
"I'm feeling well. Every week you play a game...normal teams that don't play Europe, they play like this, so you play on a weekend, have a week off and then play on the weekend again. So to be honest I feel good, I feel recovered and I feel sharp. I'm ready to go," he told football.london.
However, there's clearly a desire, bordering on irritation in a positive way, within the defender to play more football than he currently is.
"Why I don’t play every week, that’s not a question you should ask me, you have to ask the gaffer. But body-wise I'm feeling really well and really good - why I don’t play every week you will have to ask the gaffer for thi," said the 23-year-old.
"But I’m feeling well. I’ve seen some people outside of the training ground, some specialists. They have been helping me with running and understanding my body a bit more and I've learned some things from them. Like I said, I feel really good right now and ready to go."
When asked whether he was worried if the repeated hamstring injuries he's suffered over the past three seasons could have a long-term effect on his career, Van de Ven first made a sound of surprise, almost like a dog's gruff bark.
"No, not really. I recovered well. Of course, I had some injuries in the last couple of years, but I'm feeling well and I'm not really worried about something for my future," he said. "I know I train and do everything to make my hamstrings as strong as possible, and the rest of my body also, so I don't really stress about something for my future."
Van de Ven was presumably chosen for this press conference because of his time spent in Germany at Wolfsburg, and he can speak the language, yet none of the local media asked him anything.
That prompted the surprised centre-back saying as he walked out: "Hey, no German questions!" He no doubt realised in that moment that any of the Tottenham players could have been put up to speak rather than him having to be quizzed about hamstrings and whatnot.
Up next was Postecoglou. football.london asked him which Spurs players had travelled and whether Son Heung-min was fully fit. The answer was unexpected for everyone in the room and prompted frantic typing on laptops.
"Sonny didn’t travel in the end. He’s the only one who misses out," he said. "He has been battling with this foot problem for a few weeks now and he’s managed through it, but it’s got too painful over the last few days.
"He tried to train yesterday and just wasn’t right, so we’ve made the decision to leave him at home to allow him to recuperate to see the best way to recover for him. Everyone else is good. I guess the only notable addition is Kevin [Danso], who trained and is available as well, so really it’s only Sonny that misses out."
On Son, he added: "Look it’s a blow but it’s consistent with everything else that’s happened this year, so it’s just another challenge for us to overcome. Unfortunate for him and he tried really hard.
"The reason we left him out at the weekend was to give him time to recover because he’s been struggling with this foot thing for a couple of weeks now, but he couldn’t make it. You know, we’ve had these challenges all year and it’s just another we need to overcome."
Some on social media have questioned why the Spurs captain hasn't travelled regardless as a presence around the squad for the game. That's not a normal thing in football for continental away games with injured players, but it does happen on rare occasions.
However, Postecoglou made it clear that he and the medical staff had made the decision for the South Korean to remain at home. Son is currently going through personalised rehabilitation with physios at Hotspur Way to ensure he can be back as soon as possible to take part in the remainder of the season and any potential semi-final legs that lie ahead.
Using the specialised state-of-the-art rehabilitation equipment at the Enfield training complex is far more beneficial to Son than a bumpy flight to Frankfurt - as all the turbulence-hit flights were on Wednesday from the UK - and then hanging around a hotel and stadium for two days.
Spurs will have to do without Son on the pitch and it will be the words of Postecoglou that send the players out into a hostile atmosphere at Deutsche Bank Park. Then it is up to them as to whether they crumble or stand strong.
Postecoglou's press conference beyond the Son reveal was a fascinating study of a man who doesn't care about his future but clearly does - or at least his place in driving the latest project to change the north London club - a man who appears thick-skinned at times but is anything but at others.
The Australian was asked if he knows what the future holds for him beyond this match.
"Do I know? No, I’ve got no idea. We’ve got a game tomorrow night… but it’s not something I need to think about I don’t think. I’ve never thought about those kind of things in terms of what’s important," he said.
"What’s important is we have a game tomorrow night that’s a massive opportunity for this group of players, for us as a team, for this football club to get closer to achieving what everyone wants to achieve.
"I think anything else other than that, and particularly in terms of me, I don’t have much thought process that thinks about life or my career or what I’m doing in that way. What I do know is we have an opportunity to get to the final four of a major tournament and that’s where my focus is."
But does the constant speculation about his future and the at-times unpleasant and abusive criticism sit heavy on his shoulders at times?
"No, not at all, mate, because I don’t define my career and me as a person by what people think about me. I never have, never will," he said. " If you don’t think I’m a good coach today, you won’t think I’m a good coach tomorrow, even if we win, mate. One game ain’t going to make a difference to that.
"You either think I’m capable of doing the job now or you don’t. That’s where I sit with these things. If people think that us winning tomorrow all of a sudden makes me a better manager than what I am today or us losing tomorrow somehow makes me a worse manager, I guess that’s their burden, not mine.
"I don’t think that way and I don’t think most people think that way, or I’d like to think they don’t, in terms of their own sort of self esteem and who they are as people. I couldn’t care less.
"Really. I couldn’t care less. There’s no burden on me, there’s no anxiety on me. What I’m sitting here doing is thinking we’ve got a great opportunity to get to the final four of a major tournament. Mate, I’m not going to let that slip by without fighting tooth and nail for it irrespective of what may come the day after."
Postecoglou's relationship with the media is also interesting to watch. He is often on good form with some of the regulars he sees each week and he won't leap on a question he doesn't like regardless of the current situation, yet with some others he clearly has decided they're not for him.
It might be because of an article written that he felt was an attack on him - he says he doesn't read things and then at other times admits he does - or a couple of questions in the past that he believed were unfair. Either way, the way he deals with it publicly is not particularly subtle and it lingers.
All top level managers can be prickly at times, it's the nature and the stress of the job amid the media glare and one reporter in particular has noticeably been getting short shrift from Postecoglou with terse, brief, bare-minimum answers to valid questions in press conferences in recent months.
It's an uncomfortable moment to watch with Postecoglou, one that has become predictable each week and shows that for all of the 59-year-old's bluster about not being affected by the stresses of Premier League management, it does understandably get under his skin at times. He is only human after all, but then so are the people asking him the questions and doing their job as well.
Once this press conference was done, Postecoglou headed out to join his coaches on the pitch and immediately looked happier in his natural environment.
A small contingent of them had formed in a circle doing keepy-uppys as they waited for the players, with Wells, Mason, Mile Jedinak, Nick Montgomery, Sergio Raimundo and goalkeeper coach Rob Burch all involved.
Jedinak looks like he could still be playing Premier League football and his touch and technique is as good as it ever was.
When Postecoglou emerged, Montgomery and Raimundo broke away to speak to him while the others prepared for the players' arrival.
It wasn't just coaching staff who were inside the stadium. Spurs' chief football officer Scott Munn and technical director Johan Lange were both sat in a dugout having a discussion. When members of the media emerged at pitchside so the duo eventually switched to the other dugout to presumably remove themselves from prying ears.
Both men have been in the news recently with the impending summer arrival of new Tottenham CEO Vinai Venkatesham, the former head honcho at Arsenal.
There has been speculation around how that directly affects Munn's role. He is currently Levy's number two, but the newcomer is set to come in above him with everyone below the chairman reporting to Venkatesham.
That has furthered suggestions of a potential Australian exodus from Tottenham this summer, while Venkatesham will undertake appraisals of all areas of the club and surround himself with football experience.
Lange will report in to the new man and his recruitment set-up will also find itself part of the appraisals as Spurs look for yet another new path. The north London club have set off in so many different directions over recent years that even Google Maps would struggle to keep up.
In Frankfurt, the players' session when they emerged was only light ahead of such a big game, the players doing a gentle warm-up jog first, Richarlison having to play catch-up after needing to tie up his boot laces first.
In the drills afterwards, watching the different levels of seriousness and effort taken during the stretches and warm-up work is always an interesting exercise and often separates those players who will or already have long, driven careers from those who could fade if they don't cotton on to what is required alongside their talent.
Tottenham cannot afford any passengers tomorrow. They need to put in a complete performance in what will be an uncomfortable atmosphere in Germany and they need to do it firstly for the allocation of 2,800 Spurs fans inside the Deutsche Bank Park but also for the beleaguered many who follow week in, week out from around the world and have had to suffer even more than usual this season.
Spurs supporters are low on confidence. As football.london arrived in Germany on Wednesday, a border control officer at Frankfurt Airport declared with a surprised laugh: "All the Tottenham fans think they're going to lose!"
Postecoglou was asked whether this game is the one that can salvage a miserable campaign.
"I don’t see it as salvaging the season, I see it as an opportunity to do something special, so it depends on your outlook on life mate, I don’t know," he said. "You’re at a point where you have got an opportunity to get to the semi-finals of a major competition.
"Obviously you know the challenge before you and that’s the bit you’re excited about. I don’t think it is about salvaging anything and you know these opportunities don’t come round very often even if you’re having a good season, so why not take it?
"That has kind of been the message to the players. Irrespective of everything else that has happened this year, we’re a game away from the final four of a major competition and we shouldn’t take that for granted in terms of something that is a regular occurrence because it certainly hasn’t been for this club, but we’ll try to take advantage of that."
Postecoglou is right. Amid all of the pain, frustration and criticism of what has felt like the most wasted of seasons at Tottenham Hotspur, there is still the potential for it all to end with something special that the fans will talk about forever.
It is down to the Australian now to nail his team selection, choose his words perfectly and then it is up to the Spurs players to play the kind of match they know is required. Do that and it's game on rather than season over.
Preparing for Frankfurt - click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham
