Plot thickens as Spurs visit Pep Guardiola’s La La Land

As my long-suffering comrades in the press box know only too well, your aging correspondent doesn’t need much encouragement to regale all and, yes, even sundry with what I like to imagine are fascinating stories from my life in — yikes! — going on 40 years in the inky trade.

So, many thanks to Pep Guardiola for — rather in keeping with his team’s defence, as it happens — thoughtfully presenting me with the gift of an open goal this week, a chance to indulge once more, but this time relatively guilt-free, in the one about the long ago time when I sat down for a memorable chat with Mick Byrne, the Irish team’s physio, father figure, court jester and Mr Motivator in the era of Jack Charlton.

Among many other revelations, Mick informed me it fell to him to choose the movies which, in an established ritual under the manager’s watch, Jack would take the squad and the backroom staff to see in the week running up to a game in Dublin. Not only that but, Mick happily informed me, the players liked to mark his choices out of ten.