At the nadir of Manchester United’s 2017-18 campaign, after exiting the Champions League to Sevilla, Jose Mourinho spoke more openly about the club’s standing on the field of play than at any time since becoming its manager. Mourinho talked of “heritage”, of the first four post-Sir Alex Ferguson seasons in which the Premier League’s biggest club had finished no higher than fourth in the division. He talked of the seven years since United’s Champions League final appearance, during which they could manage no better than a solitary quarter-final.

Mourinho referred to some of the players he’d fought to move out of Louis van Gaal’s dysfunctional squad: “You look at United players who’ve left in the past year, where are they playing? Are they even playing?”