In the four European matches prior to the arrival of Ruben Amorim earlier this season, Mason Mount was limited to just 19 minutes of action.
Eleven of them came in the 1-1 draw against FC Twente and the remaining eight arrived with Ruud van Nistelrooy in temporary indictment for the 2-0 win at home over Paok Salonika.
It summarized the stop-start character of life in Manchester United. Even when the chips were down, United plopped on without a mount.
But Amorim was beaten with the mountain from the beginning, adamant that the former Chelsea Ace was intended for greatness among him.
Even when others were ready to write Mount, who joined in 2023 as Erik Ten Hag's no 1 target for £ 55 million, Amorim defended him like a father a son.
“I have to tell you that I love that child,” Amorim said about Mount in November after he first started him in Europe this season at home at Bodo/Glimt.
“The first is that he works very hard. And then you also have to understand people. He really wants this. That's the most important thing.
“You can see in his eyes that he wants this so badly.”
Amorim doesn't laugh much; There is not much to smile about this season at Manchester United.
But when Mount scored from Long Range to get his second, and the fourth goal of United, on Thursday evening, Amorim from ear to ear shone as the proud parent he has always painted when it comes to Mount.
Teammates celebrated that little bit more that it was also mount. Joshua Zirkzee, sidelined by injury, rushed to the midfielder at the last whistle to give him a bear hug.
Ace Harry Amass Academy, who counts Mount as a good friend in the dressing room, was another to make a big fuss about the 26-year-old on his crown evening in a shirt by Manchester United.
“Not only me, if you look at the couch, that's the best feeling as a coach,” Amorim said about the celebrations on the goals of Mount.
'If you look at the other boys on the couch, they are so happy for Mason Mount because everyone in that dressing room sees Mason doing everything he can to be available.
'He is really a good player and you can see that both goals are really good goals. So I think that not only Mason Mount, not only me, but also the teammates, they were so happy for him. '
So it would be Mount's Night in Old Trafford. Finally. The headlines are for positive reasons, just as he has dreamed of it so often since he came out of Chelsea here almost two years ago.
“I knew something good would come,” he said.
“I went on, worked hard on training every day and tried to stay positive, and when I had the chance, it paid off.”
United sources Constant emphasize how the revival of Mount is so much more than a golden child in the eyes of Amorim.
During the last pre-season, De Berg spent 10 days in Portugal, paid and organized on its own initiative, with a personal trainer to get a lead over colleagues after such a disappointing and injury hit debut campaign at United.
Club sources also speak up the positivity of Mount, despite constant setbacks with muscle injuries that have eradicated him since member of the 50 games.
Part of the Mount Appeal on Amorim is that he is one of the few who does not have to teach the 3-4-2-1 system in which he believes so strongly after he played it under Thomas Tuchel in Chelsea.
But it is also because he has never reduced tools once when so many critics had already written off the player in a united Jersey.
So when the No 7 Illuminated Green played with United on Thursday evening with semi-final fire against Athletic Club, the stage was set for Mount's Big Night.
In 28 minutes, Mount scored twice at only 19 touches, had a pass accuracy of 100 percent, won 80 percent of his ground matches and scored twice from two shots to become the first replacement to scored a brace in a European knockout game for United since David Beckham in 2003. Not bad company to preserve.
And when Calm returned to Old Trafford and the stands were empty, few were able to blame the mount for going back on the field to record such a special evening in what a special week was after he scored his first goal of the season in Brentford.
With a staircase with Luke Shaw and Shaw's son, Mount could not stop smiling, and who can blame him?
“Moments like these are worth waiting,” he wrote on social media almost midnight. He will just hope that the next big moment will not take that long to arrive.