Sven-Goran Eriksson was one of the most widely respected managers in world football until he took the England job, and from there a short spell in charge at Man City kicked off a strange world tour that recently concluded in the Chinese Super League.
He will never be fondly remembered across the water as he is deemed to have mishandled England's 'golden generation', but one person who will argue his case is former Republic of Ireland and Manchester City captain Richard Dunne as we learned on Monday night.
Dunne was speaking with Joe Molloy and Kevin Kilbane on Off The Ball when Sven's name came up having taken over a City almost a year to the day after he was sacked by England.
As club captain at the time, Dunne was instantly impressed with Sven and did not have a bad word to say about him, the reasoning for which is simple:
-He asked only for respect, and showed it to those who showed it to him.
-He didn't mind letting the lads go out on the lash.
He's an amazing man. When he comes into the room he just lights it up, and he's so quiet and polite but, to work for, he's amazing.
Every day in training is different, it's exciting. His first speech when he came in was like 'Right, we're going to try and have a better season than you did last year, I'm only here because you let the last manager down. All I want from you is respect. Respect me, respect each other, cleaning ladies, cooking ladies, everyone, just respect and the club will go forward.'
I think we finished 7th or 8th or something but we obviously had different issues throughout the season. Thaksin Shinawatra was the chairman at the time so it was a bit wild, but he was brilliant, and he stood by the players.
He's such a genuinely nice fella, he expects respect and if you don't give it to him, bye.
The reason we all liked him was probably because on our first pre-season, within days of taking over he took us to Sweden, brought us all down for dinner, and said 'Right, Richard you're the captain, here's tokens, go and take the lads out for a couple of beers, be back at 12 o'clock.'
So, we were a little bit... Delayed. Got back at 1 o'clock I think, as we came back in the door we're all trying to sneak around corners, and Tord Grip was playing the accordion.
I just thought 'these are gonna be alright, these'.
He was brilliant, with England, look at them now, so boring to watch, there's nothing about them.
They got sacked at the end of the season because of different issues, but the first game of the following season, the night before, he rang me, and just wanted to wish me and the team all the best. I was like 'Ah that's nice', he goes 'Yeah, I'm just in Panama with my new girlfriend.'
So it worked out well for him.
Outstanding.
When you think you've overdone it and arrive back late to find your assistant manager getting a session going on the accordion. We've all been there.
Sven eventually became as well known for his womanising as he did for his coaching credentials thanks to the near blanket coverage his social life was given in the British tabloids while he was England boss, but Dunne was eager to stress that from the players' perspective the Swede was a dream.
You can listen to Richard Dunne's chat with Joe Molloy and Kevin Kilbane in full over on Newstalk.com.
