This needs a few deep breaths and a pause before typing. In fact, my fingertips feel they are actively repelling an attempt to justify the most extreme footballing opinion since Manchester United decided Fred was worth £52 million.

Nevertheless, here we go. The idea cannot be suppressed any longer. Ladies and gentleman, the undoubted manager of 2018 is … Neil Warnock, of Cardiff City.

Forget Pep Guardiola with his billion-pound squad, Zinedine Zidane adding to his collection of Champions League wins, or even Didier Deschamps with a World Cup triumph, proving it is possible to blend some of the greatest players ever into a victorious but unutterably boring team.

What Warnock has achieved in South Wales over the past 12 months is a triumph of man management, defying every modern coaching trend and keeping the home fires burning for old-school Englishmen muttering under their breath about foreign coaches.

Many thought Warnock would have been sacked by the second international break, wrongly anticipating his side to be well adrift at the bottom. We all had visions of the Cardiff board thanking Warnock for his services in defying the odds to gain promotion as they reprinted the same press statement as Queens Park Rangers in 2012. “Thanks Neil, but you’ve taken us as far as you can.”