When Erik ten Hag was reminded that Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants to knock Manchester City off their perch, he looked about as comfortable as a straight-A chemistry nerd who had just been pushed into a playground scrap with the school bully.
'So I think that has nothing to do with each other …' began Ten Hag in reply, side-stepping the fact that it has everything to do with the comparison between the two clubs.
It's just that now isn't a great time for Manchester United to be measuring themselves against the 'noisy neighbours', to quote another phrase Ratcliffe borrowed from Sir Alex Ferguson when he spoke to the media last week.