At Seven Sisters station on Saturday, the Tottenham supporters were serenading Mauricio Pochettino to Pilot's Magic. Manchester United have missed the boat so many times with coaches there is perhaps more chance of Spurs rehiring their best coach in decades than United boarding.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's sympathy for Nuno Espirito Santo was sincere and Antonio Conte ceased being a threat to the United manager last Tuesday. The clocks have gone back and Tottenham have gone back to Conte, whose summer interview so impressed Spurs they were insistent on a 'passionate' coach when they considered alternatives.
It was evident during United's win at Tottenham the opposition was not a true gauge of progress and Nuno's dismissal reinforces that. United suffered a 5-0 home thrashing and didn't sack their manager, while Conte was interested in becoming their new manager. Six days later, Spurs suffered a 3-0 home thrashing and sacked their manager, with Conte about to become their new manager.
Pochettino, Conte, Jurgen Klopp, and Thomas Tuchel are four coaches who United passed on at the time they were out of work. They were never going to dismiss Louis van Gaal after securing Champions League football in the summer of 2015 and, during Tuchel's month off last season, United climbed to the Premier League summit.
There were compelling cases to move for Conte last week and Pochettino last year. Instead, the words of Ed Woodward and Richard Arnold, both guilty of putting their foot in their mouth over the manager's impact, are their bond. It's Ole in.
United gave no consideration to sacking Solskjaer before their mauling by Liverpool and that is the sole reason he was in the away dugout at Tottenham and is now in Bergamo, preparing for United's Champions League match with Atalanta.
Influential figures at United were 'not keen' on Conte and Conte had reservations about the club's penchant for 'marketing' players. He has sold himself short going to trophyless Tottenham, winners of two League Cups in the last 30 years, but a source close to the Italian said Spurs and United have 'different ideas'.
Woodward and Daniel Levy have both been accused of complacency by supporters of the clubs they run but the latter has reacted swiftly to right the wrong of appointing an unsuitable manager. Spurs were initially dismissive of the 'expensive' Nuno and his underwhelming style of play. Their matrimony was always bound to last as long as one of Elizabeth Taylor's marriages.
United are now the exception to the norm of legendary clubs hiring legendary players. Chelsea sacked Frank Lampard in January, Juventus's experiment with Andrea Pirlo lasted a season, Zinedine Zidane was back at Real Madrid for just over two years and Ronald Koeman is no longer the Barcelona coach.
When the Barca president, Joan Laporta, explained Koeman's dismissal last week, almost every statement could have applied to United. "The situation was not sustainable. We needed to act," he said. "We were not on course to achieve the objectives of the season, which is to win titles.
"Possibly we should have dismissed Koeman earlier and I take responsibility for that... We thought he needed backing. But we were drifting."
Barca are expected to appoint the feted Xavi. He is the coach of Qatari champions Al Sadd but Barcelona are sticklers for a Catalan connection or a coach who shares the same synergy. No other club would appoint, or consider, two failures at Everton (Roberto Martinez was born in Catalonia).
Solskjaer has outlasted three Barca coaches, two Bayern Munich coaches, two Chelsea managers, Zidane's second spell, Conte's Inter Milan tenure, and Unai Emery at Arsenal. All bar Lampard have caressed winners' medals.
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