On Friday night, as David Moyes plotted a route away from the abyss, the West Ham manager went for dinner with Sir Trevor Brooking.
The 74-year-old was in temporary charge when this club dropped into the second tier 20 years ago. It cannot have been the most relaxing evening, not with the current crop gasping for air.
Not with suggestions swirling that Moyes could be sacked if West Ham lost to Nottingham Forest.
By the following evening, however, the manager had cracked open a celebratory bottle of wine.
‘Why should I not?