A manager down on his luck after a second failure in quick succession, wondering what the future would hold. A national team struggling at the bottom of their qualifying group given a second chance through the vagaries of the Nations League. That national team happens to be the country where the manager made his name, inspiring a team from a town with a population of 50,000 to win the Swedish Cup.
So the two get together, doubting manager and doubting country, and somehow, less than six months after the nadir, they are going to the World Cup finals.
