A Europa League final offers scant opportunity for sentiment but there will be room for a touch of mutual fondness when Bertrand Traoré and José Mourinho come to exchange pleasantries. Traoré was the final player to be given a competitive debut at Chelsea by his former manager; at that point, in September 2015, it would have taken a creative imagination to predict their meeting on opposing sides in Stockholm on Wednesday but the Ajax loanee has every reason to anticipate the reunion positively.

“I haven’t met with him since he left Chelsea so I’ll be happy to see him again,” Traoré says, and he hopes to do so after demonstrating, once again, the gifts that once so bewitched Mourinho.

Two years ago, when Traoré had just completed an eye-catching 18 months on loan at Vitesse Arnhem, the Dutch club’s coach, Peter Bosz, rejected any thought of extending the stint with the explanation: “José Mourinho is crazy about him.”

Traoré proceeded to make 17 appearances for Chelsea before Bosz, by now in charge of Ajax and taking advantage of the flux caused by Antonio Conte’s arrival, re-enlisted him for a 2016-17 season that began slowly but has since exceeded most expectations.

The wonderfully expressive Traoré has been at the heart of that, particularly since returning from Burkina Faso’s Africa Cup of Nations campaign in February, but is quick to outline Mourinho’s influence on his progress. “I owe him a lot,” he says. “I had a great season and a half at Vitesse, then he called me back to the first‑team squad and I got some first‑team opportunities.

“Even if I didn’t play a lot when he was there, I then got more chances after he left. When you are coach of Chelsea and things are not going well it’s hard to change the team and put young players in, so I understand that. I wish he could have stayed longer but this is football and you have to accept it. Everyone has to do his job.”

Mourinho had in fact been sold on Traoré’s ability since 2013 when, at 17, the forward joined Chelsea’s pre‑season tour of Asia as a triallist. “He is a great talent … a kid that in our opinion is one of the best of his age,” Mourinho said after Traoré signed a professional contract, and the messages he pressed home after that have stayed with the player. “I learned about character,” Traoré says regarding the particular lessons he took from the Portuguese. “It’s not only about playing with the ball and doing what you can do – you need also to bring character during the game, the character to push again, to run back and defend, and to attack as well.”

Bosz, who has made it his business to turn Ajax from a technical but soft-underbellied side to one that has the capacity to press ferociously for 90 minutes, has continued the education. He was critical of Traoré’s physical condition in November but the point was heeded.

Traoré has tended to play on the right of a precocious front line, sometimes operating down the middle too. He has a rangy style but the ball bestows magnetic qualities upon his feet; the cool head in front of goal that he showed in his Vitesse days, with precise left-footed finishes into the corner a speciality, remains and, had he not scored twice against Lyon in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final, it is unlikely Ajax would have progressed.

“It’s like school,” Traoré says of life at Ajax. “You play in the first team but everything you do is like still being in the academy. The way they treat you, you know you have to keep learning – you are not there yet, not at the highest level, so you have to keep improving.”

Watching Ajax’s players uncomplainingly haul a training goal into position for a small-sided game certainly provides a reminder of the tasks more commonly allocated to less established footballers.

But there is a steely side to them and Traoré echoes his manager in suggesting Manchester United “also have to be aware of us” rather than concerning himself with the threats the Premier League side can assemble. Mourinho will have noted that much of Ajax’s best work comes via the relationship between Traoré and the 24-year-old playmaker Hakim Ziyech, who makes their attacking play purr. The pair live close to each other and socialise frequently; Traoré makes no secret of his team-mate’s value.

“He’s very important, especially for me,” Traoré says. “He’s the one who can see everything I do on the pitch. I don’t always move in a direct way, I always go one way and then change direction; he knows all of these things and is the one who can put the ball exactly where I want.”

What happens next for the 21‑year‑old remains up in the air. Chelsea’s loan department has a bulging in-tray but it cannot have missed his impact in Holland. “[Chelsea] is my club,” he says. “I always dream to play for this club. I enjoyed my games last year and this is my first choice. I want to win the cup and then get some time at Chelsea but I don’t decide it.”

He has kept in touch with friends from west London during his absence, congratulating Eden Hazard and Victor Moses on a title win that made him “very proud” and receiving a text message from the former wishing him luck for Wednesday. Hazard was on the pitch when, last March, Traoré scored one of Chelsea’s better goals of the 2015-16 season against Stoke. Nobody is in serious doubt about what he can do, not least Mourinho.

“We’ll go for it,” Traoré promises of Ajax’s approach in the final, and it could yet be enough to send the United manager crazy in another way entirely.