It was on a cool April night in north London, almost a decade ago, that Jose Mourinho first batted his eyelashes at Gareth Bale.
Bale was 21, staring down the barrel of a 4-0 losing deficit from Tottenham's Champions League quarter-final first leg against Mourinho's Real Madrid and yet still gave the impression, as one writer put it that night, that he had 'borrowed one of Superman's telephone box dressing rooms,' giving Sergio Ramos a match to forget in the second leg.
The game had a few minutes to run when Bale followed a high ball towards the touchline and stumbled into Mourinho's embrace.