Last time we spoke, three weeks ago, I glumly previewed: “Chelsea, Liverpool, City, and Fenerbache are all eminently loseable propositions; any repeated slackness would surely condemn us to another ‘cracked badge week’, as Fergie called them...”

Our reaction on next weekend’s international break tells you something about what The Special One has already changed at Old Trafford. 

Politicians’ stock answers usually make us all groan but I’ve always had a soft spot for one occasionally heard: “I’m not even going to dignify that with a response”.

In my previous column a fortnight ago, on the cusp of transfer deadline day, I held up a stressed Irish Examiner sports editor with a last-minute Sunday evening insertion. “I’ve heard on the grapevine that United might be in Monaco, chasing some French player: Throw in this extra line about it, just in case, would you?”

One of my oldest friends reported a telling exchange with his son on Saturday night.