losing the Europa league final is a prospect that doesn't bear thinking about at Manchester United.
Not for the players, who would face another season out of the prestigious Champions league - the bonus prize for winning Europe's second-tier competition — not to mention the pain of defeat in a high-profile title match.
Not not for its famous manager, whose first year at United would be widely viewed as a failure.
So much hinges on the match against Ajax in Stockholm on Wednesday that United's players and their manager, Jose Mourinho, have to be feeling the pressure heading to the Swedish capital.
United even gave up on its Premier league campaign with a few weeks remaining to give its full focus to the Europa league.
For England's biggest club, it's time to deliver.
In a year of highs and lows under Mourinho, United has won the league Cup to claim a trophy for the second straight season but finished in a disappointing sixth place in the Premier league. Missing a top-four finish - for the third time in four years – meant United failed to earn a qualification spot for next season's Champions league, the minimum requirement for Mourinho and the club's American owners.
The only way to achieve that now is by winning the Europa league, which has become a more attractive competition since 2015 when the rules changed to offer the winner an automatic spot in the group stage of the Champions league.
And that's where United, a 20-time English champion and three-time winner of the European Cup, feels it belongs: on the game's biggest stage. Not slumming it with the continent's also-rans in the Europa league.
Mourinho was hired last year to bring immediate success to United. For all his perceived downsides - a cautious, pragmatic style on the field and a confrontational, fight-picking approach off it - he has been a rapid hoarder of trophies throughout his coaching career.
Two cups and Champions league qualification would amount to a successful first season at United. One trophy and no Champions league would be a huge let-down.
"It makes sense to say it," Mourinho said, when this point of view was put to him, "but I don't feel like that. I don't want the players to feel like that. I don't think the board feels like that."
That's because, in Mourinho's opinion, United has made progress this season, recovering some of its aura of old, only for a mixture of injuries and a grueling schedule to set the team back. The last two months have been hard going, with a game every three or four days as a consequence of United going deep in every competition it entered.
The game against Ajax will be United's 64th of the season.
Mourinho might also be weighed down by the enormity of the occasion. Rightly or wrongly, this is a defining game for him and the club.
Another season in the energy-sapping Europa league is hardly ideal if United plans a genuine shot at the Premier league title. No Champions league might even stop some of its biggest transfer targets, like Antoine Griezmann, coming to Old Trafford next season.
Then there's the fact that the Europa league is the only major trophy missing from United's resume.
Ninety minutes can change all that.
REJUVENATED AJAX
AMSTERDAM: A year ago, Ajax could dominate possession but struggled to stamp its authority on quality opponents.
After one season in charge, coach Peter Bosz has transformed the long-dormant Dutch powerhouse into a dynamic team of young players who swarm forward in attack and are just as aggressive in defense.
What has he changed to achieve the turnaroundIJ
"Almost everything," Bosz said ahead of his team's Europa league final against Manchester United in Stockholm on Wednesday.
"When I started, I knew how to play, but I didn't know with which players. Now the players understand exactly what I mean — pressing, high pressing and high ball tempo, how we build up from behind, these kinds of things."
That philosophy is hardly new to Ajax. It's the swift-passing style of play that won the Amsterdam club three straight European Cups in the early 1970s and the Champions league in 1995.
But since its 1-0 victory over AC Milan in Vienna 22 years ago, and a loss on penalties against Juventus in the Champions league final the following year, Ajax has been largely left behind by free-spending European powers. Bosz believes his team's trip to Stockholm to play Manchester United is proof clubs with limited budgets but talented young players can still have an impact, at least in Europe's second-tier club competition.
"For a long time people in Holland said it's not possible for a Dutch team to play any finals anymore because the financial difference between the big clubs in Europe and the Dutch clubs is so big now," he said. "But we've made it."
Ajax, runner-up to Feyenoord in the Dutch league this season, is back in a European final thanks to its renowned youth program, which has for decades churned out talented stars, and the club's knack for scouting stars of the future.
Amsterdam was the first overseas stop for Manchester United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who will miss the final in his home country because of injury. Ajax has uncovered another Scandinavian star in Kasper Dolberg, the 19-year-old striker who already has six goals in the Europa league this season and whose cool finishing has earned comparisons to Marco van Basten. Dolberg scored a goal in each leg of Ajax's semifinal victory over lyon.
Partnering Dolberg up front will be 21-year-old Burkina Faso forward Bertrand Traore, who is on loan from Chelsea and set to again run into the manager who lured him to london - Jose Mourinho.
"He gave me so many chances to stay in Chelsea. I am excited to meet him again," Traore said.
Ajax's mix of home-grown talent and bargain basement - by current European standards - signings is also familiar. The team coached by louis van Gaal that won the Champions league in 1995 also blended youngsters like Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids and Patrick Kluivert with veteran leader Frank Rijkaard and unsung overseas players like Finidi George and Jari litmanen.
Davinson Sanchez, a 20-year-old Colombian who has been one of Ajax's most consistent defenders all season, is the only player in the team with experience of a major final - he won the Copa libertadores in July 2016 with Atletico Nacional.
"We're in the final because we've worked unbelievably hard. Some people think we're too young, we don't have enough international experience. We may be inexperienced, but we make up for it with our talent," Sanchez said. "We believe that experience isn't everything. That you can get a long way with talent."
Bosz's players have had a busy season but they've had well over a week without a competitive match to prepare for the final.
"Instead of looking at Manchester, I am rather looking at my team," Bosz said. "And the most important is that we are fit, we are fresh, nobody is injured, and that's the great way to prepare the team for the next Wednesday."