Pep Guardiola has purred over Gabriel Jesus since the moment the striker arrived as a cheery teenager at the Etihad and swiftly bumped Sergio Aguero out of the Manchester City team.
As the manager has said many times, there is nobody in the world quite like Jesus at pressing - a critical demand in a Guardiola team and something Aguero has had to learn to regain his place. However, there is no player in the world that cannot be improved and this season a point of difference has emerged between Jesus and his manager.
The Brazilian has always been a confidence player; he lost form for City after a disappointing World Cup with Brazil in 2018, for instance, but roared back to Manchester after an inspired Copa America the following year. After ending a goal drought this season, the striker said he wanted to shoot himself in the head as he battled with the pressure of returning to goalscoring ways.
Such openness and honesty will always be appreciated by reporters, but for Guardiola the reaction was too extreme.
"Confidence has to be there in the head, not because of good or bad performances, winning or losing games," the manager said when asked about Jesus's relief.
He added: “They can control it, they don't need the manager to speak to them, they have to believe they are good enough and show how good they are.
“All the time it's there, if they score goals the confidence rises, if a keeper doesn't concede goals the confidence rises. It's there.”
If Jesus has shown his finishing can still improve, there were signs of a more-lasting confidence shortly after that piece of public advice from Guardiola. The striker missed some sitters in the 2-0 win over West Ham in February and was relegated to the bench for the subsequent trip to Leicester.
There, he came off the bench to score an important winner and days later produced a terrific performance and goal in the comeback victory over Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, fully justifying the decision to start him over Aguero.
A recent interview also pointed to Jesus being more content with his strengths. He knows what an almighty battle he faces on a daily basis to compete with one of the best strikers in the game in Aguero and has absolute respect for his senior teammate, but at the same time can recognise what he can give to the team.
It was interesting to hear Jesus say that his greatest quality was his mindset and mentality, just four months since talking about shooting himself in the head over missing goals.
Guardiola has already reaped the rewards of Raheem Sterling's improved mentality in front of goal, the ability to put misses out of his mind and focus on the next chance that was coming. Jesus following that path would improve what is already one of the best attacks in the game.