Here was Jose Mourinho in his element, the centre of attention and a photo to rival a fuming Arsene Wenger as he watched the last half hour of this one arms crossed like a naughty schoolboy from the stands.
Shown a red card with his team back in the game at 1-1 and building momentum. It soon, as it often does with Mourinho, became all about him and not the fightback of his players. It takes a certain type of showstopper to have cameras swivelling away from the pitch for minutes on end.
When he got tired of standing arms crossed he sat on the stand’s steps. Welcome to the naughty step, Mr Mourinho.
This was the box office Mourinho that had been promised. The wild gesticulations, the back-chat, the laughter, the scowling, the stress, the elation. He even turned to the oldest trick in his book by embracing a ball-boy.
For the English fans and media in tow he is known as ‘The Special One’. That’s a moniker that doesn’t seem to have followed him to the Turkish capital.
Jose Mourinho was the centre of attention as his Fenerbahce side drew against Man United
Mourinho led protests amid a Fenerbahce penalty appeal and was shown a red card
He took a seat on steps in the stands and was seen sending messages down to the dugout
‘He is always stressed,’ TV presenter Cigdem Günal tells Mail Sport amid this frantic back-and-forth game.
‘And always negative. Was he like that back in England?’
And that was the general theme here when Mail Sport canvassed opinion about the man who topped the box office charts at Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham.
As he arrived in his blazer and jumper combination - a smart, but casual, look, but sharp as a ox with the camera lenses glued to his every move - he looked happy, laughing even. It is far from the image painted of him on Turkish TV this week.
‘This is not the Jose Mourinho we dream of,’ former Turkey and Fenerbahce boss Oğuz Çetin moaned.
Aykut Kocaman, who played for the national team and at one time managed Fenerbahce, doesn’t believe Mourinho is ‘healthy’.
‘Foreign coaches who come here see themselves above [everyone] and think it's easy,’ he said.
‘Then when they see the difficulties here, they hit a wall. I don't see Jose Mourinho's current body language as high in self-confidence as when he first came. He doesn't look very healthy right now.’
The ex-Man United boss had been in a good mood in the build-up to the Europa League match
Mourinho had been oddly stoic on the touchline to start but the mask quickly slipped
Perhaps it is hearing the English accents that gets him going. At his press conference he doled out signed shirts to two journalists and even laughed along at jokes about his dietary habits after Mail Sport’s exclusive look at his hotel life here in Istanbul.
To start on the touchline Mourinho was oddly stoic; there was a restraint that was so often missing when in England.
He applauded his players furiously when they went behind and was doling out positive affirmations. Of course the mask slipped five minutes later and it was vintage Mourinho back with us.
His lip curled up in pure annoyance when Dusan Tadic didn’t convert from two yards out following a miraculous sliding block from Manuel Ugarte. Arms held out wide like Christ the Reedemer, Mourinho memes were ready to make themselves.
Then came the wagging finger, the hand waving Joshua Zirkzee, poleaxed from a crunching tackle, to get up.
The 61-year-old was expressive as his side missed chances and were denied by Andre Onana
Mourinho's familiar gesticulations were then on show as his side fought back into the tie
Mourinho protests to the fourth official over a penalty decision led to him being shown red
There remain few in world football who are capable of putting on a show like Mourinho
By this point Mourinho was stalking the shadow of the linesman on his side, on occasion pointed at him to urge the crowd to boo the official.
When Youssef En-Nesyri saw two headers from a yard-out saved spectacularly by Andre Onana it was laughter that followed initial speechlessness from Mourinho.
What followed was the lip that fourth official’s in the Premier League no longer miss. That biting tongue of his getting him in trouble again, as it has done so often before.
Even at 61, few in world football know quite how to put on a show like Mourinho and here was a reminder for those who may have forgotten.