By the time Alvaro Arbeloa was promoted from Real Madrid Castilla - sitting fourth in their Primera RFEF group at the time - he had created a football identity of teams with personality and wanting to dominate.
Yet at the first team, he says he couldn't simply be himself.
As he put it: "I had to be the manager I had to be."
So his time as first-team manager at Real Madrid may be no real reference for Fulham.
At Castilla, his side was built around what he calls offensive joy - possession and pressing without the ball were the two pillars.