When Leeds United brushed Stoke City aside on the opening weekend of the 2018/19 Championship season, it became immediately evident that Marcelo Bielsa was special.
Turned to following the disappointing stints of Thomas Christiansen and Paul Heckingbottom, the Argentine was tasked with making the club genuine promotion contenders.
Early on in his first season with the club, it became apparent he was capable of doing so.
In front of a stellar crowd at Elland Road, Leeds cruised to a 3-1 win over Stoke courtesy of goals from Mateusz Klich, Pablo Hernandez and Liam Cooper.
Ten members of the starting XI that day had been on the books during the previous campaign, making it all the more impressive that there was no semblance of the disjointed outfit watched for swathes of the 2017/18 season.
Four of the players - Luke Ayling, Cooper, Klich and Kalvin Phillips - remain at the club.
The intensity the Whites came to be famous for under Bielsa was on display on that Sunday afternoon in August and a Stoke side filled with big names were left chasing shadows.
However, the starting XI proved to be an early prototype of well-oiled machine that would eventually end the club's Premier League exile.
Bailey Peacock-Farrell started between the sticks but less than six months later, a replacement had been signed in Kiko Casilla.
The Northern Ireland international would eventually depart for Burnley, who sent him on loan to League One side Sheffield Wednesday for the duration of the current campaign.
Of the back four, two would go on to become stalwarts of Bielsa's Leeds but two were denied prominence under 'El Loco' by injury.
Cooper and Ayling, when fit, were rarely absent under the Argentine and current act as captain and vice-captain respectively.
He did not hesitate to use Gaetano Berardi heavily early on and the Swiss fan favourite did manage 22 league outings during the promotion-winning campaign, but injuries ravaged him for the bulk of Bielsa's first and third seasons at Elland Road.
After leaving in 2021, he had a spell as a free agent before striking a deal with FC Sion in his native Switzerland.
Barry Douglas, the only new recruit in the starting XI, arrived with the weight of expectation on his shoulders having registered 14 assists from left-back during Wolves' Championship title-winning campaign.
Struggles with injury and form, however, meant Ezgjan Alioski and Stuart Dallas were often used at left-back when the Whites secured promotion in Bielsa's second season.
The introduction to the new system demonstrated how pivotal Kalvin Phillips would be, as supporters saw him in his role as Bielsa's deep-lying midfield lynchpin for the first time.
Ahead of him was Klich, a player brought in from the cold after being frozen out by Christiansen, and his energetic display that afternoon laid the foundations for the starring role he would go on to play under Bielsa.
Alongside him was a Spanish playmaker, one with the capability to be mesmerisingly dangerous but who was often as frustrating as he was exciting.
Sound familiar? Before Rodrigo, there was Samuel Saiz.
Initially an exciting and prominent figure under Bielsa, he left on loan midway through the 2018/19 season amid reports of a desire to return to his native Spain, before sealing a permanent move to Girona in July 2019.
Either side of Saiz and Klich were Hernandez and Alioski, both of which featured heavily for the Whites before departing in 2021 for Castellon and Al-Ahli respectively.
Although both started out wide that day, Hernandez would go on to be used on both flanks and as a number 10, meanwhile Alioski would come to be known as an adventurous, attacking left-back.
Kemar Roofe had burst into life in the season before Bielsa's arrival, rediscovering the goalscoring prowess that helped earn him a move to the Championship from Oxford United.
LeedsLive are taking part in a nationwide conversation to learn about club rivalries, have your say below:
Despite suffering with injuries, he still managed to lead the line in 32 Championship matches throughout the 2018/19 season and did so when the Bielsa era began against Stoke.
However, it was an unused substitute on that day, Patrick Bamford, that would go on become Bielsa's lone forward of choice as Roofe left for Anderlecht in 2019 and then joined Rangers.
The squad that clinched promotion from the Championship and the one that moved the club into the top half of the Premier League are perhaps the most memorable, but the glimpse of the future offered by Bielsa's first-ever XI will always be fondly recalled.
