Meet the new boss, not the same as the old boss

I caught up with Stan Collymore in Dublin during the week for a conversation which produced our story on Thursday that, even though he only spent six months playing under Martin O’Neill at Leicester City, the striker still reckoned the Derry man was the manager who had the greatest influence on him in his entire 14 years in the game.

But that revelation came in the context of some broader observations that the former Liverpool, Aston Villa and England man had to make about management in the Premier League this season. This may well be the era of the superstar gaffer, a time when there is arguably more galactico content in the dug-out than on the pitch, but Collymore has a theory about a subtle evolution in the role which, if correct, could signal more trouble ahead for Jose Mourinho.

The warning signs were clearly there last season at Chelsea, he suggested, when Mourinho broke with what he calls “footballing omerta, or the Fergie philosophy if you like, that you don’t slag off your players in public.” And part of the ultimately heavy price he paid for not adhering to that principle was that “Eden Hazard didn’t turn up for him.”