Ibrox stadium in the winter of 1987, the venue its customary cocktail of tension and cacophonous demand. On the pitch one Israel international tries to get used to the peculiar demands of Scottish football. In the main stand another Israel international is so unimpressed he sleeps through it all.
"Tamir wasn't born when I was at Liverpool, and when I moved to Glasgow Rangers he was three," recalls international No 1, Avi Cohen. "There were 50,000 people and it was very noisy. He used to sleep."
Played in by his father, Israel international No 2 gladly finishes. "It was so boring so I fell asleep," says a deadpan Tamir Cohen. Avi shakes Tamir's shoulders and both smile. When father and son tease each other as they pose for the camera, when they talk about being "close like friends", it is obviously not for show.
Family relationships in sport can be capricious beasts, oft filled with pressure and acidic expectation. One of an extremely select group of overseas parent-sibling pairs to have played top-tier football in England, the Cohens appear to have harnessed the benefits of living the same profession while avoiding its dangers.
A technically able defender, Avi became the first Israeli - and one of the earliest players from outside the British Isles - to play in the First Division when he arrived at Liverpool in 1979. Though his games were limited in an era of few substitutions, he did make a memorable mark, scoring both for and against Aston Villa as his club regained the title. Now 53, he is chairman of Israel's Professional Footballers' Association.
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By his father's account a stronger footballer with "a much better shot than me", Tamir is considered the fittest player at Bolton Wanderers, a club that values physical endeavour more than most. Bought from Maccabi Netanya for £50,000, with a release clause cannily inserted into his contract by his father, Cohen has become central to Bolton's midfield since signing two years ago. Did father push son into following in his studmarks? "He never forced me to play football," says Tamir. "Never." Did father criticise son's mistakes? "No."
Was he a hard taskmaster? "No. He just told me what I did wrong, how I can fix it, what I need to do better. He never gets mad or angry at me. Doesn't matter what I did, or what I tried to do, he just explained in a good conversation."
Avi interjects with an anecdote about Tamir's early years at Maccabi Tel Aviv, the club where both turned pro. Having joined the academy at nine, Tamir was left on the bench for an under-12 cup final. "I told him after, 'Listen, if you want to play you have to work hard. I'm Avi Cohen, but you won't play because I'm Avi Cohen'. I think in that minute he changed his attitude."
A good story, until Tamir spoils it. "I don't remember that final and I don't remember that he told me these things." Nor does Tamir remember kicking a ball around with the professionals his father coached after retiring. And not until this interview does Avi tell him the tale of former Israel national team coach Yaakov Grundman watching the six-year-old before stating: "Avi, he'll be a player. Definitely, he has it."
Tamir broke into the Tel Aviv first team at 18, quickly winning the championship and League Cup before impressing in the Champions League. Then came a testing period in which he became the unwitting victim of an internal dispute in which club legend Avi Nimni flexed political muscle to have coach and team changed.
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Tamir found himself watching matches with his father. Further off the field he was enjoying Israel's nightlife. "You are young, you become famous so quickly and you don't know how to deal with it," he says.
In one particularly reckless moment he became headline news for losing an illicit challenge match against an indoor football team. Side bets were involved and one of Tamir's teammates spiced up the reports by skipping Maccabi Tel Aviv training to preserve energy for the bounce match.
Then he met Yael, the woman he married before moving to England in another parallel with his father. "It's very important to put Dorit and Yael in the article," says Avi. "That's the two girls that give us the backing to stay alive. Bob Paisley asked me if I was married when I came for a trial at Liverpool. I said, 'No'. He said, 'Are you going to be married?' So it's like asking me and telling me. It happened to Tamir as well, he signed and got married. Me and him, it's like the same story."
Tamir's latest chapter begins today when Owen Coyle takes over as Bolton manager with the first of back-to-back matches against Arsenal. Already there has been a shift from predecessor Gary Megson's stolid approach. "It is a very healthy situation for the club," says Tamir. "From how he talks and the exercises we are doing in training - pass and move, movement without the ball - the style will be different. Arsenal is difficult but we don't have anything to lose. The new gaffer says how you train is how you play in the game, so he demands we train with smiles. Hopefully that's the way we are going to play for the rest of this season."
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