Business was certainly mixed with pleasure during the 25 minutes Lee Johnson and his staff spent inside Pep Guardiola’s Etihad office a fortnight ago.
There were niceties, of course, particularly after Championship Bristol City had impressed so much that the Premier League leaders only go to Ashton Gate with a slender lead on Tuesday thanks to a last-gasp Sergio Aguero winner.
But this was a working meet, evidenced by the presence of both Manchester City’s sporting director Txiki Begiristain and chief executive Ferran Soriano alongside their manager.
Questions were fired from both sides and intriguingly part of those discussions appeared to centre on a potential loan link-up.