Jorge Griffa has an eye for talent.

And this season, that eye will be firmly fixed on the white half of north London. For there, he will find two more of his own. One in the dugout and, with the arrival of Giovani Lo Celso, another on the pitch.

The story of how Mauricio Pochettino was discovered has been much repeated since Marcelo Bielsa arrived at Leeds a year ago, always with Bielsa as the protagonist.

For those who have not heard it: on a scouting mission and the Argentine countryside, Bielsa and another Newell’s coach turned up at a 14-year-old Pochettino’s house at 2 a.m. asking Mr. and Mrs. Pochettino to see their son.

They were taken to cast their eyes over the sleeping Mauricio and, after one look at his legs, the coaches decided that he was a future star and took him to Newell’s.

The man with Bielsa that night? Griffa, of course.

Two decades later, with Griffa having given his name to his own youth football club in Rosario – the Asociación Atlética Jorge Griffa – the same man found another player to add to the glittering list.

A left-footed midfielder with wonderful balance and a silky first touch, it was clear, just like it had been with Pochettino, that the boy they called ‘Monito’ – ‘little monkey’, a nickname bestowed upon him by his father Juan – had something special.

After two years with Griffa’s academy side, Lo Celso was ready to sign for a big local club. Unlike Pochettino, though, Lo Celso did not go to Griffa’s beloved Newell’s. He was a fan of their bitter rivals, Rosario Central, and he followed his dream to play in their yellow and blue strip.

He went on to make his debut for El Canalla five years later and within a few months been bestowed the title of the “ruby of Argentine football” by the influential El Gráfico magazine. Inside a year, he had been whisked off to Paris Saint-Germain.

Despite the pair falling on either side of their city’s club divide, Pochettino has long seen Lo Celso as a central part of Tottenham’s future and, according to reports from Argentina, his decision to remain as Spurs manager this summer rested on Daniel Levy signing the 23-year-old.

Now, the men from Rosario have been reunited in north London and are seeking to push Tottenham on to new heights this term.

A quick look at what Lo Celso did in the summer, when he joined up with Argentina for the Copa América, shows us why, beyond the obvious bond of their respective pasts, Pochettino was so determined to get his man.