A random encounter with Sir Alex Ferguson at a stadium in the foothills of France's Massif Central revealed how the world had changed utterly for the man who is approaching the fifth anniversary of his retirement.
It was Saint-Etienne's Stade Geoffroy Guichard, about a year back.
Manchester United arrived with an emphatic first-leg advantage in the Europa League round of 32 and as Ferguson joked about the British writers consuming all the French food on offer, it seemed like the old days, before he put the barricades up.
He grinned and disappeared into the lift with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and a few others, no longer carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.