As Alan Hudson rolls back the decades to his halcyon years as the most gifted English midfield player of his generation, he toys with the medallion around his neck.
It is the touchstone to his glory days, the golden chain on which it is hung the umbilical cord to his wild and wonderful years as the darling of the King’s Road. He wears it constantly.
It is, you have to pinch yourself to remember, the only winner’s medal this genius has to show for all his bewitching seasons in the sun. A prize forged in the heat of Chelsea’s 1971 Cup-Winners’ Cup final replay triumph in Athens over Real Madrid.