As a figure keenly aware of his public persona, little or nothing of what Jose Mourinho does in public is ever taken for granted.
Whether or not he is constantly courting a hidden agenda is irrelevant. A little like Bob Dylan, everything Mourinho does is afforded importance simply because it is he who is doing it.
Few are as aware of this as opposition managers - the battle 'off the pitch' was something Pep Guardiola never seemed to understand the value of when the pair were opposing managers in Spain.
Mauricio Pochettino is the latest to have taken exception with Mourinho's nefarious approach to football management.
In the soon to be released Brave New World by Guillem Balague, the Spanish author who once wrote intriguingly of Guardiola's Barcelona will turn his attention to Pochettino's Spurs.
Currently being serialised in the Mail, special attention was afforded to the Argentine's consternation with Mourinho's attempts are luring Eric Dier to Manchester United.
Suggesting that the advances of United and Mourinho caused the Spurs midfielder to lose his focus, Pochettino recalled the moment his Spurs side traveled to Old Trafford last season, losing 1-0 to a Henrikh Mkhitaryan goal.
When all press commitments had been carried out, Pochettino was disturbed to see that Mourinho remained lingering around the away dressing-room as the players finished their warm down:
He greeted Moussa Sissoko and hugged [Eric] Dier. They passed by me en route to the dressing rooms, laughing, speaking in Portuguese.
Maybe it is a common Mourinho tactic, but he put Eric in a compromising position. You cannot do that after a defeat.
Dier, who was born in England but raised in Portugal, admitted to knowing Mourinho 'a long time, from my time in Portugal ... one of his godsons coached me.'
Naturally concerned with maintaining the balance and well-being of his squad, Pochettino proceeded to explain how he had a 'four-hour' lunch with Dier on the Monday after their defeat in an effort to explain why he disagreed with this brief catch-up.
In what amounts to an amazing insight into Mourinho's ability to instill doubt and confusion in the minds of his opposing numbers, Pochettino was clearly unimpressed with the Portuguese's brazen undermining of his authority.
It is sure to be a fascinating book.
