One is happy to be proven wrong in this industry and Lisandro Martinez has defied just about every doubter.
When the Premier League is halted for the World Cup and teams of the season are submitted, Martinez would be worthy of inclusion, along with Raphael Varane or William Saliba of Arsenal.
Martinez's Manchester United career is still in its infancy and he is already a cult hero. The image of him clambering over stewards to grapple jubilantly with a fan in the Shed End on Saturday ensured he was booked by the killjoy referee Stuart Attwell.
Read more: United squad impressed by Ten Hag handling of Ronaldo situation
The Brazilian Casemiro had secured a heart-stopping point yet the chant that echoed around Stamford Bridge was "Ar-gen-ti-na".
"Mate I don’t know you but we’re in this together…" Martinez tweeted afterwards. Marcos Rojo once stood on the Anfield Road End with United followers and it is not a stretch to imagine Martinez leading a chant in the future.
For such a checkered record of recruiting Argentinians, United fans' affinity with them endures. Martinez is more Gabriel Heinze than Rojo.
Heinze, recipient of the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year statue in his first season and serenaded with the aforementioned chant as he hoisted the Premier League trophy at Old Trafford in 2007, treacherously sought to join Liverpool. You sense Martinez is already committed enough to avoid such a dalliance.
Martinez's debut was disconcertingly reminiscent of Rojo, though there have been scant similarities since. He has shackled Mohamed Salah, Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane, truculently engages opponents (especially England internationals) and is almost as much of an attacking asset as some of United's actual attackers.
The thorough scouting dossiers Ajax compiled over a two-and-a-half year period were prescient. United fans had cause for optimsim in Martinez's bow against Rayo Vallecano when his distribution caught the eye.
Martinez's line-breaking passing has advanced attacks and on Saturday his diving header turned defence into an attack Antony ought to have finished.
The emphasis on Martinez's height in pre-season was understandable and pint-sized title-winning centre-backs in England do not roll off the tongue. Martinez was hooked at the interval in United's generational nadir at Brentford on his second start when he was in the shadow of Brentford's power players amid the unforgiving sun.
Some are so precious about Martinez's stature a handful took umbrage with a tweet during open training that read "struggling to see Martinez out there", days after he was forced off injured against Arsenal when as the picture attested, binoculars were required at Carrington.
Against Vallecano, as well as the subsequent competitive fixtures versus Brighton and Brentford, three separate colleagues uttered the same judgement: "Martinez is tiny." In the flesh, he is. Joe Pesci is proof the little can loom large.
"He brings a South American spirit, control, aggressiveness," Erik ten Hag told us in Melbourne three months ago. "He can bring spirit to the team and in cooperation with the fans, I think it will fit really good to Manchester United and the way we play."
It is not a coincidence United have become more aggressive with more Latinos in the squad. Martinez, an excellent English speaker, has collaborated auspiciously with Tyrell Malacia and Luke Shaw, the latter embraced euphorically by Martinez when Bruno Fernandes put United into checkmate against Tottenham.
In the bowels of Old Trafford, Ten Hag was effusive about Martinez's partnership with Varane during his debrief with MUTV after the Vallecano draw. The lack of a press conference and Cristiano Ronaldo's traffic-dodging departure overshadowed the pair's promise.
They would not be paired together for three more weeks; the pivotal victory over Liverpool that restored belief in the dressing room and among the fanbase. Martinez received the man of the match accolade.
Varane is the injury United fans - and Martinez - dread the most. Martinez is entitled to a 'top fan' badge for his engagement on Varane's Instagram page. The last read "Raphael Crackane" - crack the term of endearment Spanish-speaking players reserve for particularly talented and influential teammates.
Martinez has already dubbed Varane a 'legend' and his 'brother'. "What a pleasure to play by your side," he informed him after their second competitive start.
At Carrington, they have found Martinez to be extremely polite, composed and quiet - the opposite of his on-pitch persona - and helpful with academy graduates. English football can be too preoccupied with height with budding talents and Martinez has shown it does not necessarily matter.
He has proved plenty wrong.
READ NEXT:
