For a long time Spain ruled imperiously over the international football landscape.
But that time is well and truly over after Chile put the last nail in La Roja's World Cup coffin.
However, how much harm will the catastrophic defeats to Chile and the Netherlands have on this Spain generation's legacy?
To answer that, we were joined by author John Carlin who says that a lot of people in Spain are "trying to be philosophical about it" give the trophies won by this team since 2008.
"There is that glorious legacy but there is a sceptre of the population that are engaging in recriminations against the coach and so forth. But all in all, I think there is much more in Spanish football to espouse," said Carlin.
Carlin revealed that Spain manager Vicente Del Bosque had told him that the biggest challenge facing this generation was how to sustain the hunger and drive which had carried them to so much success, as well as the ageing core.
Xabi Alonso had also told him as a recently as a month ago, that Spain would have to deal with the fatigue factor, having accumulated so many on-field minutes since Euro 2008.
Carlin feels they looked "mentally and physically drained" as evidenced by their on-pitch performances in Brazil, and also linked the Spanish decline to Barcelona's.
He also picked out the fading Xavi as one of the key reasons behind the demise of this Spanish team and Carlin believes Del Bosque may feel that he should have been more "cold-blooded" when it came to refreshing the squad.
But is Del Bosque likely to stay up until Euro 2016 and how will he be viewed when the dust settles?
Listen to the full interview via the podcast.
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