If Barcelona fail to the get the Saul Niguez-Antoine Griezmann swap deal over the line and the 26-year-old Spain midfielder ends up in the Premier League it will feel like something that was always meant to be.
They love a borrowed English football phrase in Spain and whenever they use 'box-to-box' it's often to describe the midfielder now on the verge of leaving the club he joined aged 13.
When Saul began knocking on the first team door as an 18-year-old prospect at Atletico Madrid he was picked up on Manchester United's radar and watched regularly.