Rodrigo Bentancur cost Juventus one-fifth of a Nemanja Matic and 15 per cent of a Fred, while Mino Raiola would not get out of bed for less than the £8 million they paid Boca Juniors in 2017.

The 21-year-old Uruguayan put on a clinic at Old Trafford on Tuesday night, completing more passes than any player on the pitch - narrowly pipping his colleague Miralem Pjanic who was also excellent.

With Fred an unused substitute and Matic passed around like a training-ground mannequin, Jose Mourinho's post-match pleas of poverty rang even more hollow than usual.

There is some playful artistic license being indulged here, because transfer fees paid by different buyers to different sellers, at various dates in a rapidly inflating market make it almost impossible to gauge true value for money. A youngster from the Argentinian league will always cost less than an off-the-peg, competition-proven, talent from Europe, let alone a player from the over-heated Premier League market.

Bentancur's performance however, as well as Arthur's for Barcelona against Tottenham at Wembley, were a reminder of a handicap on English clubs in European competition - their inability, and in some cases reluctance, to buy South American at source.