When Nottingham Forest's new boss Sabri Lamouchi was unveiled at the City Ground last week for his first role in English football, the 47-year-old Frenchman had Reds fans scratching their heads.
Eighteen minutes earlier, club legend Martin O'Neill had been sacked and his immediate replacement, while boasting an incredible playing career, had managerial experience exclusively from faraway lands.
Yet, as Lamouchi arrived at the City Ground for his first role in English football, having already put pen to paper down in London, he was not treading on fresh soil.
The ex-Auxerre midfielder would have had to remind club staff that his City Ground debut will not come at home to Crystal Palace in a fortnight's time, nor against West Bromwich Albion on the season's opening day.
Instead it came 24 years ago.
Lamouchi will have been surprised to see just how little the City Ground has changed in the two decades since.
The Trent End, the last stand the club put through serious redevelopment, had already been flattened and rebuilt in time for the fast approaching Euro '96 when 23-year-old Lamouchi and his Auxerre side came to town.
The small French side were on their way to making history in their country as they upset the odds to stormed to their first league title.
Corentin Martins, Laurent Blanc and Taribo West, who would later join Derby County, were the standout stars of the side who came to lock horn with the Reds for the second round of the UEFA Cup.
The first leg was decided by Steve Stone's 23rd minute strike, but the result of the second was arguably decided on the same night, as Blanc, who of course would go on to lift the World Cup three years late, was forced off injured.
The City Ground fixture was goalless, and a frustrating one for Lamouchi and his teammates as they crashed out at the last 16 for the third time in five years.
Over the next two seasons, Auxerre would qualify for the last eight of the Champions League and win the revamped Intertoto Cup, before Lamouchi departed for Monaco, Parma, Inter Milan and Marseille.
But 24 years on, he is back at the City Ground and while the club no longer rubs it's shoulder with Europe's elite on the biggest stage, the stadium still stands unchanged and will act as a reminder of the day he first arrived in the East Midlands, baby faced and fearing the once mighty Reds.
He may be new to English football, but Lamouchi knows where Nottingham Forest should be.
