For years he kept the fax, signed by Martin Edwards and Alan Sugar, that stated Manchester United intended selling him to Tottenham if he could negotiate personal terms. He never did. Never tried to. Never wanted to and maybe held onto that bit of paper as motivation. It was summer 1998 when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer dug in and fought for his United playing career: a year later, of course, he came off the bench against Bayern Munich to become immortal.

Now United have effectively substituted Solskjaer in as manager and Spurs will play their part in his fate again. The Norwegian’s five straight wins since replacing Jose Mourinho appear to make him the dugout supersub, propagating shoots of speculation about him getting the post full-time.