It's when Wayne Rooney is asked whether any of Sir Alex Ferguson's old man-management ruses make more sense to him, now he is a player-coach, that the first smile breaks out.
'I know what you're saying,' he replies. 'I always remember as a kid, every half-time, arguing with him, constantly. I remember thinking, "Why does he keep having a go at me? There's players far worse than I've been!" Then the older you get, the more you realise why he's doing it. He's obviously aiming at other players who can't take it….'
The 'other' he has in mind is Nani, a player Ferguson once called 'pure raw material' but who had a habit of dribbling when a pass was required at times.