When he was fit, Sherwood deployed Traoré as an impact substitute: Villa was struggling against relegation, and he deemed Traoré too unreliable to build a team around. Eric Black — one of Sherwood’s successors — described him as “one of the quickest players I have seen for years,” but admitted he was “indisciplined.” He barely played in the final few months of the season. When Villa was relegated, he was sold to Middlesbrough.

There, he worked with three coaches. Aitor Karanka, the first, devised a special program for him, an attempt to polish his talent. One afternoon a week, Traoré would sit in Karanka’s office and go through video of his recent performances, his manager pointing out what he had done well and where he might improve, particularly in his work off the ball.

Karanka’s successor, Garry Monk, urged Traoré to abide by the team’s structure, to remember “what the team shape is and what is needed from you.” By the time Tony Pulis, his third and final coach at Middlesbrough, arrived, Traoré was “a little bit confused tactically.

“He had been trying to please everybody,” Pulis said.

As Pulis sees it, Traoré had become something of a managerial pet project: Every coach wanted to prove he was the one who would be able to marshal his talent, to show that they were the one he had been waiting for. “He had forgotten what his real strengths were,” Pulis said. “We straightened that out.”

Rather than formal video sessions, Pulis would invite Traoré into his office for a cup of tea and a chat about Lionel Messi. There was no tough love: If Traoré had to be reprimanded or criticized, it was always in private. “He’s a lovely boy, but some players are a little more insecure than others,” Pulis said. “He would always question himself, rather than whether the coach was giving him the right instructions.”

Instructions — particularly for defensive work — were kept to a minimum; Pulis wanted Traoré to focus on what he did well. “It was very simple stuff,” he said. “We wanted him to fill spaces, track his opposing fullback.”