Echoing his one time team-mate from River Plate, Jose Manuel Moreno, who once defined his playing motto as "I always wanted to have the ball for myself; she was my girlfriend", Di Stefano chose to address the football for the title of his memoirs: "Thanks, Old Girl".
Unfortunately for McClaren, everything was suddenly going Sunderland's way, a trend emphasised when Cattermole – who else? – wiped out Jack Colback with a blood-curdling tackle which ended his one time team-mate's afternoon and was rather fortunate not to collect a slightly overdue yellow card.
My version looked like the remains of a prehistoric murder victim unearthed on Time Team, one who had suffered a succession of catastrophic skull fractures.
During his time at Robichaud High School, he became a nine-time MHSAA state champion (seven-time individual in track and field, one-time team each in track and field and football).
If Manchester City, who had drawn and lost to Barcelona in two consecutive rounds of 16, needed any further reminder of who to avoid, they would have found it watching their one-time team-mate Edin Dzeko playing at the Nou Camp on Tuesday night.
That's all well and good with Hamilton and his one-time team-mates.
Pam Shriver, who helped Navratilova to five of her Wimbledon titles, paid tribute to her one-time team-mate.
"Cohen, like his captain Johnny Haynes, won the same amount of domestic silverware as his one-time team-mate Jimmy Hill: zero".
There were a couple of flashes of the old skill, taking down a deep, crossfield ball on the tip of his boots and a moment when he allowed the ball to run past his one-time team-mate, Jonny Evans, before accelerating away.
He said: "At one time a team Blackburn would have 14 or 15 top Premier League players.
The Lean group: One full-time team leader One secretary, 3 days a week One superintendent, 3 days a week One radiologist, 1 day a week One economist, ad hoc Ad hoc assistance from a consulting firm.
