On an unusually warm night in Nantes shortly before Christmas, one of football’s most seasoned managers joined a 30,000-strong crowd at the city’s Stade de la Beaujoire to watch a gangly Argentine who had been challenging Kylian Mbappe at the top of France’s scoring charts.

A lack of goals was the veteran coach’s problem and the big striker whom he had travelled to Brittany to see had been enjoying a freakishly prolific season.

To the delight of the yellow-shirted hordes in the stands, it took Emiliano Sala only half an hour of Nantes’ midweek meeting with Marseille to score his 13th goal of the season. Left unmarked on the penalty spot, he thumped an unstoppable header past Steve Mandanda from Abdoulaye Toure’s cross.

He returned the assist in first-half stoppage time, outmuscling Jorge Rolando in the box and laying off the ball for Toure to side-foot home from 20 yards. And, in the 63rd minute, he showcased his strength again by preventing Adil Rami cutting out a clearance that Lucas Lima then collected and set up Gabriel Boschilia to tap in the winner.

Neil Warnock, the manager of Cardiff City and veteran of 16 clubs, had seen enough, and the ultimately catastrophic mission to bring Sala to the Premier League began.