How Sir Alex Ferguson sparked the fire within Wanderers caretaker boss

"At the time, it was very hurtful," he said. "It's questioning everything that you stand for. But I've dealt with a lot of difficult situations in my life. Those type of things, it comes, you deal with it and you move on real quick."

The Carney incident was a pointer to the character de Marigny is: passionate, sometimes to a fault. These days, he insists he can keep his emotions in check. Saturday's A-League derby against Sydney FC, which will be just his second match in charge of the Wanderers, will be a good test.

"I'm going to really enjoy it," he said. "But I'll openly say it because it's important – I had quite a few discussions with a professional person to give me those tools to make me a better person first, and to control my emotions. That's important for everyone, mentally, that you're stable and balanced."

But there's a lot more to de Marigny, now 56, than the fiery hothead he's viewed as. Plenty of people know of him  but, as memories of his seven caps for the Socceroos and career in the National Soccer League continue to fade into the ether, not many these days actually know an awful lot about him.

Like, for instance, the fact that he was born in Mauritius to parents who were both professional ballet dancers in the London Royal Academy. His father was French, his mother Australian.   When they divorced, he followed his mother to Sydney at age 15.

''I just want to get on with my work and do the best of my ability and to be fair, I've had quite a bit of success doing it.''

Jean-Paul de Marigny

Sport, as it tends to do for new arrivals, helped de Marigny meet people, although breaking down barriers in Australian soccer, where most migrant groups tend to stick together, was tough for him initially. Barely anyone had heard of Mauritius.

"They didn't quite work me out, because I wasn't Italian or Greek," he said. "They nicknamed me 'Froggy', because of the French background. It was about being street smart, adaptable, respectful, working very hard to get better. It was a tough period, but football really helped me."

Not long afterwards, he found himself in the orbit of none other than Sir Alex Ferguson – one of the many stories that has slipped through the cracks of Australian football's collective memory.

Years before he turned Manchester United into an unstoppable behemoth, Ferguson guided unfancied, unfashionable Scottish club Aberdeen to the 1983 European Cup-Winners Cup with an extra-time victory over Real Madrid – arguably, all things considered, his finest achievement, and one of the greatest in Scottish football history.

Two years earlier, a teenage de Marigny watched him work his magic at close quarters. He was sent there for a short training apprenticeship by his then-coach at NSL powerhouse Sydney City, the late Eddie Thomson, who once played for Aberdeen and remained a close friend of Fergie's until his death in 2003.

"It was an unbelievable learning experience," de Marigny said. "For me, he was way ahead of his time."

De Marigny shared a training pitch with some heady company, including Gordon Strachan, Alex McLeish, Jim Leighton and Mark McGhee. His job was, essentially, to learn as much as he could and do whatever he was asked.

He remembers wheeling over  a large trolley full of folders for Ferguson containing all of his extensive scouting notes on their next opposition.

"He was already doing analysis of every player: height, weight, strengths, weaknesses, preferred foot, characteristics, where he likes to turn, how he links up, his passing game, their history," de Marigny said.

"While I was rolling it, because I always wanted to be a better player and coach, I did look at a few files. His attention to detail was excellent."

It was only a few months, but it left a lasting influence on de Marigny, whose description of Ferguson's personal coaching style sounds a lot like how some people describe his: very hard, perhaps even harsh, and a man you never want to cross.

"It comes from a good place. You know he's hard because he feels that you can be a good player," he said of Ferguson.

"Reaching your full potential, that's what he was all about. He was always communicating with players. [Whether] you played 300 games or you hadn't played any, it was lots of one-on-ones."

The rest of this season will serve as an extended audition for de Marigny, who clearly has designs on making his job at the Wanderers permanent. He'll do so like he's done everything else in his life: quietly but vigorously, plotting away in the shadows without much fanfare, just the way he likes it.

"The good thing about me is I'm very adaptable," he said. "It's about being able to really adapt to the environment that you're put in.

"I just want to get on with my work and do the best of my ability and, to be fair, I've had quite a bit of success doing it."