The date is April 7, the scene is the press room at Old Trafford.
Sir Alex Ferguson and Cristiano Ronaldo stroll in, donning typical United training gear ahead of their Champions League quarter final first leg with Porto.
Ronaldo, looking like a Madame Tussauds waxwork with hair shining and face glistening, takes his seat next to the United boss – a man who has won more trophies and demands more respect than any other in world football.
Tittle-tattle amongst the gathered journos greets the duo’s arrival.
Tittle-tattle based upon morning reports that Ronaldo has agreed to move to Real Madrid, reports Ronaldo had added gallons of fuel towards during a long drawn-out summer of flirtation.
James Cooper, a regular face at Old Trafford over many years and a dyed-in-the-wool ally to Sir Alex, is readying the question any good journalist would ask.
Leaning forward, a silent hush sweeping across the room, Cooper offers a question his bosses simply would not forgive him for evading.
“Cristiano, just while we’ve got you, can you just assure Manchester United fans that this is the right club for you?”
A chuckle, almost patronizing, invades Ronaldo’s previously inpenetrable face, he leans back and waits for Ferguson to reply to the journalist that has barely ever dealt him a bad word.
“How many more times will you ask that question? Pathetic,” comes the unnecessarily harsh reposte.
The irony was lost on nobody.
Ferguson has – over the past two decades - become a figure of unrivalled respect by demanding that his players do their job to the best of their ability.
Yet when it came to a journalist doing the same, the United manager showed him the very opposite of respect…instead it was mere contempt and arrogance.
10 days on, ‘contempt’ and ‘arrogance’ are the words Ferguson is levelling at Rafa Benitez.
Whether his attack on the Liverpool boss is justified or not, hypocrisy and disrespect are without doubt two characteristics that sit very snugly with the United manager.