Mason Mount wore the pain of the worst season of Manchester United in more than half a century and a Europa League -last defeat from Tottenham on holiday to Spain and the golf course in Valderrama.
By the time the 26-year-old had enjoyed a family break in Ibiza and returned five weeks later to the preseason in Carrington, the smile was back on Mount's face, but he is determined to make the 'Hurt' because he and his united teammates.
“Very long,” he says with a sad smile in the United team hotel in Chicago when he was asked how long it took before the feeling would go. 'Yes, it certainly takes some time.
'Because as a player you only think of small things in the game. I started the game, so it was “what could I have done in that situation?” Or “could I have made it better?” Everything that happens in the game is like a greater impact, especially in a final.
'You don't look at it too much because you would drive yourself crazy, investigate a lot of detail. But it hurts and the entire season hurt.
'I have had quite a few losses in the final, so it's not easy. It will certainly never be easier, certainly. The final are never easy to take if you lose. But if you are in that next, you remember that feeling.
“But this is now a new slate. We look ahead and really use this season to work on many things that we might not have had enough time to be last season. With the schedule, with the games, and of course with the Gaffer that comes halfway, this period is so essential for us to work on things. '
After taking over in November, the warning by Ruben Amorim showed that a storm was coming to the arrival, terribly accurate when United floated above the relegation zone before he finished 15th – the worst campaign of the club since he dropped in 1974. In January Amorim described his team as probably the worst in the history of United.
“As a player you never want that,” Mount admits. 'I can just speak for myself personally, disappear in the summer, you always look at what you can do better, how you can be better for your teammates and perform as a group, how we can all perform better.
“It wasn't good enough last season. We know that, but we are kicking now. We are ready to put that wrong. And from the first game of the season it starts pretty well (at home at Arsenal). A first first game, so we're ready when that comes now.
'I think it is always difficult, a manager who arrives halfway through a season. There were so many games and we had no preseason to work on things and look at the form. We have clearly changed shape halfway through a season.
'It is difficult to sometimes adapt to those situations, and I think that could have played a role in that. With the games we didn't have much training time. We play a game and the next day is a recovery day. And then you build up to the next game.
'We have not done many analyzes from last season. We have looked at a few areas that we can improve, but this is a new season. It's like wiping the slate clean. Entering this season with a different kind of attitude and a feeling about it and we are ready to go.
'From the day one of the preseason is about norms and details within training, of course on the field and outside the field, and really concentrate on us as a group and what we have to do to be better and to perform.
'He (Amorim) is huge on details, the small improvements on the field or outside the field, and he was really big in that. As a group we know what to do in those areas, because we have to perform to the best of its ability.
'It is important with every new season to set new goals, especially last season. Like I said before, it's the details. I think in some of the games that abandoned us where we admitted some goals and did not create enough opportunities.
'The set pieces in the Premier League are so large and teams are really concentrating there, really. I think we struggled a bit with that in the beginning and we probably admitted too many goals.
'That influences games when they are so tight and you get a set piece and you might see from a corner, say, it has a big effect on the game and then you chase it again. That has happened to us quite a bit and that is something we have clearly looked at and trying to improve. '
The disappointment of last season means that United will not only play in Europe the second time in 35 years, and Mount believes that the qualification for the Champions League should be the main goal of the club.
“We want to be clearly back in Europe. I think that is a huge, huge thing for the club, “he said. “I think that's the focus. The Champions League would be great for us and as a group we want to play in that competition.
'We know how difficult that is in the Premier League. There are so many teams that are currently investing clearly and playing football very well. And as I have said, it is the small details here and there that really influence that at the top of the competition. '