Little man with big ideas

Pulling up in front of the Fota Island Hotel, Gianfranco Zola hops off a golf buggy, offers a warm handshake and, with it, that familiar beaming smile.

But the Chelsea legend, now the manager of Watford, hasn’t been relaxing on the golf course. He has been busy out on the training pitch, overseeing the final session of a week’s pre-season in Cork, which included a game against Cork City at Turner’s Cross.

A fair bit was riding on the whole experience, not least because the decision to use the sports training facilities and hotel in Fota had been taken by the previous regime at Vicarage Road, before all changed utterly this summer with the takeover of the club by the Pozzo family, owners of Udinese, and then Zola’s appointment as a replacement for Sean Dyche.