Newly-appointed Wolves manager Dean Saunders has heralded his arrival at Molineux with a speech that veered between military discipline and nutritional advice.
The Welshman wants his players to be unquestioning soldiers, working selflessly towards a common goal. But that doesn’t necessarily mean laying down their lives. They could just cut back on the fast food.
He said: “Without discipline you have nothing. Football is a watered down version of the army. You have to obey orders and you are all together as a group.
“If you go into war and two soldiers do their own thing, they get the rest killed. Obviously we are not in the army but there has to be rules — not being late for training, not leaving your kit on the floor.
“Living your life properly, not going away from here into McDonald’s, eating like an athlete. I don’t think Jessica Ennis stops off at McDonald’s on the way home.
“That’s discipline. To be able to say ‘no’ to things that don’t make you play very well. You need to respect your team-mates. And respect authority. If the manager tells you to do something do it!”
Or to paraphrase Deano: ours is not to reason why, ours is but to hold the fries.
