During his long spells out of work over the past four years, Mauricio Pochettino must have envisaged his return to Tottenham - but he could never have imagined it would be like this.
Pochettino has always felt he left unfinished business in north London and even now, as the Chelsea head coach prepares for a controversial return to Spurs, he has refused to rule out finishing the job in future.
"Who knows? Who knows?" he said, when asked if he could still manage Spurs again. "It's a club like Southampton or Espanyol or Newell's Old Boys. It's like life, you never know what is going to happen tomorrow.
"Hopefully, I can stay [at Chelsea] until I die! 20 or 25 years, but you never know. If I'm not working, and maybe if they want me one day, why not?"
Tonight, Pochettino will be back at Spurs but as the enemy, rather than one of the club's favourite sons.
The Argentine transformed Spurs and established a passionate connection with supporters, bringing them some of their happiest memories of the modern era.
Had he returned in different circumstances, he would have received a hero's welcome but with Chelsea it is complicated, and many Spurs fans feel conflicted.
It is not clear if the club will welcome him back over the PA system but Pochettino is likely to get a mixed reception when he emerges from the tunnel and it will be fascinating to see how he acknowledges the home support, if at all.
Ange Postecoglou says his predecessor deserves nothing but respect, while Pochettino has said he "cannot guess" as to his reception but urged Spurs fans not to forget the memories they shared.
Many supporters will applaud but others regard his decision to join the Blues as a betrayal, or simply believe abusing the Chelsea manager comes with the territory.
"Our best years this century were under him and he gave me my greatest-ever night as a Spurs fan in Amsterdam," says Tony Parsons, a season ticket-holder since the '80s. "People who forget that have short memories. I don't begrudge him for furthering his career.
"It was really sad when it came to an end and I don't think it was his fault. "I'll applaud [him]. I might stand up and cheer to be honest."
There are certain things you can't do if you're connected to Tottenham and managing Chelsea is one of them.
For some Spurs supporters, there are mitigating factors to Pochettino ending up at Stamford Bridge; he was sacked by Spurs in November 2019 after repeated warnings that his squad needed refreshing, and was overlooked for a return in the summer despite his interest in reprising the job.
There is also a precedent of sorts in Glenn Hoddle, who was player-manager of Chelsea but warmly welcomed back to Spurs in 2001.
For other fans, however, there is no excuse for joining Chelsea and all Pochettino's work at Spurs now effectively counts for nothing.
"I'm looking forward to booing him," says Billie T, part of the Spurs podcast Hometown Glory. "I felt a real connection with Pochettino but he betrayed us.
"Chelsea is a really intense rivalry with a horrible history of all sorts of abuse. He'd have been very aware of that fact and he even said Chelsea are now our biggest rivals. So he knew exactly what he was doing.
"There are certain things you can't do if you're connected to Tottenham and managing Chelsea is one of them. Once he did that, all the bridges were burnt."
There are also more dispassionate reasons for wanting to make Pochettino uncomfortable tonight.
"I'll boo Poch just like any other Chelsea manager," says Tom Hayward. "It's a massive game, so why would we want to take off any competitive edge by not treating him like any other Chelsea manager?
"He's going to actively do everything he can to beat Tottenham. He doesn't care about the history. We're in the same position as fans, aren't we? Why should we cave to sentiment?"
There is a middle ground, where a majority of supporters may end up.
It would hurt much more if he'd come back and we didn't have Ange.
"Quite a lot of the group I sit with are not going to cheer him or boo him, and that will probably be my view," says Martin Cloake. "Spurs didn't approach him [in the summer] so what is he supposed to do?
"I think the error he made was saying Chelsea were the biggest club of the past 15 years. Lauding them that much was never going to go down well."
One thing Spurs supporters can all agree on is that the sting has been taken out of his return by their stunning start to the season under Postecoglou, who has transformed the team and bonded with the fanbase far quicker than even Pochettino managed.
"You'd look back wistfully on Pochettino during the Nuno, Mourinho and Conte eras but it's now it feels like Pochettino plus plus plus," says Chris Paouros of Proud Lilywhites, Spurs' LGBTQ+ Supporters' Association.
"He's a distant memory. It would hurt much more if he'd come back and we didn't have Ange."
