"It would break my heart if Wales went back into the doldrums," Warren Gatland declared after his Wales reign ended three years ago.
That Gatland's worst fears were starting to be realised this autumn perhaps proved the overriding factor to make him jet back from New Zealand for a sensational second coming.
Just nine months from a World Cup, Wales' most successful coach has returned on a rescue mission, tasked with galvanising a nation once more and restoring the pride in a national team that slumped to new lows under previous incumbent Wayne Pivac.
Italy's first ever win in Cardiff in the Six Nations was exasperating, but the terminal defeat to Tier 2 Georgia last month served as Pivac's death knell as Wales coach. The calamitous result was tellingly unsurprising, but unfathomable under his great predecessor.
Change was needed and James Hook, the swashbuckling back involved in two famous Grand Slam wins under Gatland, knows the mindset of his former coach better than most.
But even the 81-cap Hook, a victim of his own talent at times under Gatland as he was shuffled across a burgeoning backline, was caught off guard by his shock return.
"I was a little bit surprised," Hook tells Mirror Sport . "Warren Gatland took Wales as far as he could have taken them and we had a great crop of players. He's got a tougher task now but who else was out there?
"People mention [Crusaders boss] Scott Robertson but he hasn't coached at international level. Gatland's tried and tested, he's Wales' most successful coach ever so they feel there is security there.
"It's a bit of a win-win for him because Welsh rugby is in trouble with the regions and the way the WRU are performing. If he starts winning games he's the hero again but if it doesn't work he can blame what's going on in Welsh rugby."
Hook is hardly overselling the issue on the failing Welsh Rugby Union. Under-equipped bosses have presided over a ghastly national team run of nine defeats in 12 Tests, a damaging decline in the regional game, and have let uncertainty reign from the Principality Stadium through to grassroots at a time where clarity is key.
But one certainty remains the WRU's abiding faith in Gatland, who has been backed with an option of a contract through to the 2027 World Cup in Australia, signalling at least an intention of a long-term plan.
Gatland is said to have insisted on a root-and-branch review of the professional game, in the knowledge he can only do so much for Team Wales without a united network from the grassroots to the international stage.
And the 59-year-old could also move upstairs into a more overarching board-level role in the future. But Hook is realistic about what a coach, who solely focused on his national team in his first stint, can achieve without significant support.
"Is he just looking at the national squad or is he going to try and sort the regional game out?" he speculates. "There's been talk of him taking over in a director of rugby role and doing a lot more and working with Nigel Walker (Performance Director) - if that does happen then great - things need looking at from the bottom up.
"He can't do that all on his own. He needs to work closely with Walker and find a plan on what they want to do with Welsh rugby. He was really successful but its going to be difficult to top that - but he feels he can do a job because he would never have taken it otherwise."
Gatland has vowed to create a 'no-excuses' environment before the World Cup but Hook insists that Wales cannot afford to jeopardise their own chances of success - and should therefore scrap the controversial 60-cap rule.
It is a topic that divides opinion across the clubs and pubs of this rugby-adoring nation, with the rule imposed in 2017 making players with fewer than 60 caps ineligible to play for Wales if they sign for a club outside of the country.
The law was designed to offer Wales coaches maximum preparation time with their squad and has meant most players have stayed at either Cardiff, Dragons RFC, the Ospreys or the Scarlets. But there is now severe pressure for change amidst the financial crisis imploding the regional game. The current financial impasse in Welsh rugby has led to a freeze in players being offered contracts.
And such uncertainty means a host of Wales players could flee overseas. Star second-row Will Rowlands has already penned a deal with Racing 92 in France, and now requires special dispensation to be selected in Gatland's World Cup squad.
Max Llewellyn, the young Cardiff centre highly-touted to become a Wales regular, will cross the Severn Bridge for a new club at the end of the season. And fly-half Gareth Anscombe, highly-admired by Gatland, is another being courted by teams abroad.
WRU chief executive Steve Phillips insists the premise of the law is here to stay, amid a review into whether the 60-cap threshold should be adjusted. But Hook, who enjoyed spells in Perpignan and Gloucester in his career, is adamant that the sorry state of affairs must force the union's hand.
"The rule should be wiped completely. We want to keep our players in Wales but it's difficult. Put yourselves in the players' boots. There's players who haven't been offered contracts, quality players, like Rowlands, have gone.
"English and French clubs are circling and can you blame them? They've got to look after themselves and their families and there is so much uncertainty right now. You have to wipe that 60-cap rule."
Gatland has so far remained tight-lipped on decisions regarding backroom staff as he mulls over his coaching ticket before the Six Nations in February. Rob Howley has been tipped to make a remarkable return to his setup, while he also worked well with defence coach Steve Tandy on the 2021 Lions Tour.
But one man who will not be prized away is old lieutenant Shaun Edwards - the brooding but irreplaceable former Wales defensive guru currently tasked with building the French foundations for home World Cup glory next October.
"Gatland will want to sort that out already," Hook says. "Shaun Edwards is the best defence coach I've ever been coached by and we won so many championships purely based on our defence. It's unfortunate that he's tied up in France.
"It's hugely important. It will be interesting to see if he will keep his current coaching staff because Warren doesn't do a lot of on-field coaching, he leaves that to his other coaches. I don't know if he'll trust his current backroom staff to carry on what they're doing. He likes working with people he's comfortable with. Will he bring Howley back? Does he bring Tandy back in? That's the big thing for me."
Gatland is not hands on - he thrives on building a winning culture with trusted coaches, instilling self-belief, developing young players and sticking to a pinpoint plan. And Hook can attest to the psychological tricks Gatland keeps up his sleeve.
A proven master of the mind games, Hook is eager to see how his esteemed former coach will plant the seed in his flailing squad this time around.
"I remember when we were doing a World Cup training camp ready to come up against the big Southern Hemisphere teams. Gatland would say: 'I've spoken to other coaches. I've seen the New Zealand fitness scores and we're the fittest team by far.
"Then when he left it was all made up so it will be interesting to see what he makes up now he's back!"
Crucially a premier operator in the results business - Gatland won 25 of his last 34 games as Wales boss - while Pivac won just 13 times over the same stretch in his entire tenure.
And Hook is familiar with the alacrity of Gatland's work. He walked into a Welsh malaise after the humiliating 2007 World Cup exit to Fiji, turning a squad of apparent no-hopers into 2008 Grand Slam winners in a matter of months.
"If you'd asked anybody - even the players 'do you think we're going to win the Grand Slam in less than a year's time we'd have thought - probably not'," Hook recalls.
But if any coach can achieve the improbable with Wales, it is the nation's revered Kiwi rescue man.
