There was a time when Sam Allardyce used the unappetising prospect of eating sheep's testicles as a motivational tool.
But, as his lives past and present collide with Crystal Palace's FA Cup visit to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday, even Allardyce has to ruefully admit that such high jinks belong to a different age.
It was Bolton who shaped Allardyce as a player and manager, yet now they are determined to inflict misery upon him in a third round tie that comes as a distraction to the real business of saving Palace's Premier League status.
In eight years from 1999, Allardyce led unfashionable Bolton into the Premier League, kept them there, guided them to a League Cup final and twice took them on European adventures.