Fred strides in and his smile brightens up an already illuminated function room at the Athenee Hotel. He shakes hands and greets us in English on what is his third pre-season tour as he approaches a fifth season with Manchester United.
Although Fred has conducted interviews before in English, he will reply in Portuguese but there is no translator. Fred could be as excoriating as Roy Keane when he played the pundit for MUTV and we would be none the wiser.
United are providing the translation, which some of us joke could be heavily redacted. Fred has conducted punchy interviews in his native tongue with compatriots where he lamented the "vanity" in the squad and questioned the logic of hiring an interim manager. "As we say in Brazil, I carry the piano for the artists to play," he said in February.
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At the Rajamangala Stadium, Fred played the first notes in the attack versus defence drills, receiving the ball from deep. It is a role Erik ten Hag has likely occupied for Frenkie de Jong and Fred may be the natural foil as United plan ahead without an outright defensive midfield addition.
Fred, signed by Jose Mourinho, entrusted by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and maximised by Ralf Rangnick, is playing under his fifth United manager, including Michael Carrick's 11-day caretaker stint.
"It's been a great four years for me here," he says. "I'm going into my fifth season. It's been really important for me, a club that has both embraced and helped me a lot. I hope to continue giving back in games, I have to do my job on the pitch.
"It's been an excellent four years for me, I want to continue developing more every day and I still want to win a lot of trophies with United."
There is greater responsibility for Fred, the most senior central midfielder now the Paul Pogba circus has packed up and folded its tents. Having a coach on the training ground helps. "Definitely," Fred stresses, "it's important for the players to have the manager nearby, passing on and teaching us each and every detail.
"It's great for an individual player so just imagine for the team. We have to make the most of his proximity, he's worked a long time in the game and understands things well. He'll guide us, and he'll help us midfielders.
"Pogba was a great player here, unfortunately he moved on. We wish him all the best. There'll always be competition, we're a big club, one of the biggest in the world. Players joining us will be looking to play and those of us already here want to play, so there'll be competition.
"Of course, Scott [McTominay]'s a great player, he's still young so can get even better. I can also improve every day, that's what I work towards.
"I think all the players in our squad, not just me and Scott, all the midfield and attacking players should connect and work hard together to achieve success."
FIgures at United have described Ten Hag as "blunt" on the training pitch and it was apparent during the open session at the national stadium in Bangkok. Donny van de Beek, a Ten Hag disciple, was not spared during a spontaneous analysis. Fred thrived further forward under Rangnick but could return to the deep-lying role he has spent most of his United career in.
Ten Hag has insisted on the players dining together and avoiding lie-ins on tour. The players' arrival time for training at Carrington has also been brought forward an hour earlier to 9am as Ten Hag goes about restoring discipline to last season's mutinous squad.
"I think we have to be united," Fred says. "All aspects of last season were difficult which is hard. This season with a new manager, with new rules already, we'll look to unite and stick together as that’s how our team must be.
"We have to be strong and to be strong we have to be united. We hope we can be focussed and strong. Erik can help us to continue being united.
"We're really looking forward to the new season. We have a new manager in Erik and I'm sure we'll achieve great things. That's what we're working towards. I hope we meet our goals by the end of the season.
"He's a great coach, training is good, intense. We're aiming to put what he says into our daily training. I hope we can win things in the future. It obviously won't be easy, it won't happen overnight. We'll look to be doing our best as soon as possible.
"It's really important for us to have a strong coach who has the last word alongside us. It gives us security and helps us a lot. He's very detailed in his work, he has his own fine details. All the day-to-day details. It's important having him alongside us. It's really good for our daily work."
So will United get it right this time? "I hope so, I hope we can do some great work here with Erik. As I said before it won't be easy, everything's new, it's new for the manager - a new, different league. He's an intelligent coach who knows what he's doing. We aim to action his requests on the pitch. I hope we can achieve a lot of things here with Erik.
"Last season was difficult, but that's in the past now. We know it wasn't good, it wasn't what we wanted.
"I'm certain that Erik is here to do great things, he's here to win things. We really hope he can do a great job here and are fully behind him. We're looking to achieve a lot, great things, and I'm sure we'll achieve this.
"Last season is behind us now. It was really bad, we weren't good enough. We have to turn the page, we have a new manager with new objectives. We want to win great things.
"Last season was really difficult for everyone. For some years now we haven't won any trophies. Obviously something has to change to achieve success, if it's not working you have to aim to succeed.
"I'm certain Professor Ten Hag is aware of this and will do his best to help Manchester United return to the top, from where they should never have left.
"I'm sure our fans will support and get behind us. They'll continue cheering us on in the stadium and we'll do everything to bring them joy. The most important thing is that we win trophies."
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