The 24-year-old manager with a top-flight promotion and Real Madrid connection

But it's even more eye-catching given the circumstances in which this Gen Z gaffer got his break. Back in 2023, Llandudno were unable to use their own ground, had seen their entire coaching staff walk out and didn't have enough players to field a side with the second-tier season just weeks away. Perceived football wisdom suggests you look to an old head at times of crisis but Llandudno chairman Dave Guinn turned to a 21-year-old youth team coach.

"I don't think you could print some of the things that were said to me on social media when we appointed him," Guinn recalls. "But there was a gut feeling. Jordan just had an aura about him, that he wasn't just talking the talk.

" Hadaway might have wondered what he had got himself into, with the club's financial situation at the time described as "dire". "The pitch had been condemned and we were £100,000 short of paying for a new pitch," Hadaway says, the club forced to play home games in Bangor and Conwy, money going out without coming in. "There were no revenue streams, I was working unpaid because the FAW had taken the academy away so we were in a bit of turmoil.

"I was asked to step in and that I had a £400 budget – the lowest in the league – just to get a squad to start the season. And we had to pay a physio out of that. "That's what makes staying up that year so special.