Sir Jim Ratcliffe turned to his friend at Nice's Allianz Riviera Stadium with a pained expression on his face. 'He's going to pass it backwards, isn't he?' he said.
Below, on the field, the wide player with the ball at his feet in the team he acquired in 2019, did just that. 'For f***'s sake,' Ratcliffe exclaimed.
While the new, 25 per cent stakeholder in Manchester United is unlikely to demand Erik ten Hag bans Alejandro Garnacho from doing anything other than going forwards, those who know the petrochemicals billionaire believe the short exchange speaks volumes of his personality – and of what his fellow, long-suffering United fans can expect over the coming days, weeks, months and years.