Roy Hodgson didn’t know he’d set up Kagisho Dikgacoi for the fright of his life when signing him for Fulham in 2009. Instead, the then-Cottagers manager had innocuously swooped for an international who impressed for South Africa against Australia and, in Hodgson’s eye, fitted his team for their infamous 2009/10 Europa League final season.
Hodgson’s purchase also instigated a fight with future Fulham boss Scott Parker, mocking at the hands of a BT engineer and ruminations about the Queen’s flippant power in the United Kingdom.
But first, the fright of his life.
Dikgacoi arrived in London as a bullish enforcer with a growing reputation in his native South Africa.