How do you weigh up success? How do you determine and describe a winner? Does qualifying for a major tournament even if it's ugly merit a champion?
Giovanni Trappatoni leaves Ireland as a footballing community and team in a stronger position then when he arrived.
Andy Reid, Stephen Ireland, Anthony Stokes, Joey O'Brien and Darron Gibson are now at least reassured of a chance of returning to the international fold.
Trappatoni's time was up, he had clearly given all he could and remained out of touch with the exact mindset of the fans and players.
Yet was he a disaster? did he deserve the slamming from critics such as former Millwall player Eamon Dunphy gave him on Irish national TV, RTE Sport? No, no one deserves to be lambasted and ridiculed, especially a man who is among the most honored and decorated in global football.
As supporters and as a community, Ireland has continually punched above it's weight in world sporting spheres.
This was a step too far, asking players who ply their trade in the Championship and lower half of the Premier Division to come through a campaign against Austria, Sweden and Germany was just a little too much.
Realization and acceptance are often hard to let sink in, we as a footballing community need to accept that our top players are no longer top Premier League players, they are no longer competing in Europe's top tiers and many are not at the standard that Irish football fans have been used to in the past two decades.
The contenders are few and far between, Martin O'Neill is the only realistic and viable option, ticks all the boxes and should be offered the job. If the FAI spend too long thinking and not enough time acting he will be snapped up by a Premier League team and our window of opportunity will be missed.
The luck of the Irish ran out in Dublin and Vienna in the past few days now it's time to carve our own success by first realizing what this team is capable of and secondly supporting a new regime that understands and appreciates the fans passion even if it's often misplaced.