Ange Postecoglou and Evangelos Marinakis are not being thrown together as complete strangers at Nottingham Forest.
They know each other reasonably well and in their own different ways represent Greek success in modern football.
Shared pride in their heritage brought them together over dinner in July when Marinakis presented Postecoglou with an award to herald his status as the first coach hailing from Greece - he was born in the Athenian suburb of Nea Filadelfeia before moving to Australia at the age of five - to win a major European club trophy.
On that night, the irony was that leading Tottenham to the Europa League and ending their drought of 17 years without silverware was not enough to keep him in the job and yet could be celebrated by the nation he left as a boy.