Aston Villa's promotion back to the Premier League is the claret and blue touch paper of Jack Grealish's career.
Villa's 23-year-old captain was the midfield catalyst for Dean Smith as his team roared to ten consecutive wins, a place in the Play-Offs and eventual promotion.
Grealish sliced open an eyebrow while lifting the trophy at Wembley, the starter pistol for a period of celebration that promised a steamin' John McGinn, saw Tyrone Mings make it as far as Bournemouth in full kit, and, at the time of writing, still has Grealish in its boozy glow.
He's earned every unit with a string of stellar performances - no pun intended - but it will bring to mind the image of a younger Grealish on the deck and off his face, one of the earliest indicators that he was tabloid box office.
Grealish is a wealthy young man and he likes to have a good time. He's also a professional, lauded by those around him for his focus and dedication, evidenced by his growing maturity and leadership on the field.
There are things people outside Villa think they know about this floppy-haired calf monster. Grealish is a piss artist. Grealish is a diver. Grealish is arrogant.
While he certainly knows how to enjoy himself and presumably possesses the basic level of self-belief it takes to be a fabulous football player, these assumptions are united by the fact they're utter bollocks.
That old photograph was the beginning of the wider public's relationship with Grealish, a relationship built primarily on the virality of bullshit in football.
The 'diver' accusation in particular is both universally accepted and demonstrably false. Grealish was sent off against West Bromwich Albion in 2015, in part for a blatant dive. He's barely played a game since then that I haven't seen, and I can't recall another.
He knows how to buy a foul. To deny that would be silly; it's a cornerstone of his style of play.
Grealish thrives on the proximity of opponents, slowing down, drawing them close and using his imagination, superior balance and phenomenal ball manipulation to leave them behind.
Grealish is the most fouled player in the Championship not because he cheats, but because it's the only way for players of that standard to stop him.
Indeed, he's tactically targeted from kick-off in most games, so much so that one has to fear his career will be cut short by some witless clogger instructed to injure.
Grealish The Diver is nothing but a component of Grealish Who We Don't Want To Like, a character developed in the collective consciousness of Birmingham's other club.
The notion took flight. It's been easy for rival Championship supporters to adopt it when the little toerag spends 90 minutes winning free kicks against their team - that these fouls tend to be legitimate is neither here nor there.
That's how football supporters work. If it suits our agenda it's the truth. Grealish's reputation is born of bitterness and nationally borrowed opinions rooted in local bias.
I also have an agenda. As a Villa supporter I want promotion to be a watershed in Grealish's public perception.
I want Premier League audiences who've never really watched Grealish to make up their own minds rather than simply absorbing the propaganda of fans with an axe to grind.
If they do that, I'm sure they'll see what a wonderful player he is.
Football is a game of dimensions. Up and down. Left and right. Forwards and backwards. Grealish sees more dimensions than the players around him - passes and options and angles and escapes that look impossible.
It's football imagination combined with the touch and skill to convert it into action. To call him a natural would be unfair on him and his family and coaches, but that's how he plays.
Grealish back in the Premier League, mature and focused, is a thrilling prospect for me as a Villa supporter.
He would have been playing there next season even if Villa weren't. At the beginning of the season he was on his way to Tottenham Hotspur but ended up staying at Villa. Another season in the Championship simply wasn't going to happen.
It's nearly four years now since Grealish angered another group of supporters by switching his international allegiance from the Republic Of Ireland to England. That's old ground that doesn't bear going over again. The fruits of his decision are, finally, on the way.
Grealish is going to play for England this season. He will shine in the Premier League and Gareth Southgate is a vocal admirer, so as a supporter familiar with his game there's not a doubt in my mind that a debut is close.
The prospect of Grealish in the senior side is incredibly exciting.
Ever since he was a teenager playing his first matches for Villa, he's reminded me of a particular England player from the 1980s and 1990s, a legend I shan't name for fear of cursing a young pretender.
You're going to love watching him in the Premier League. You're going to love him when he plays for England. I guarantee it.
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Chris Nee
@SphinxFtbl