It’s a little more than 40 years since John Toshack left Liverpool and the small details of how the club later broke his heart still linger, yet he does not try to disguise the significance of his time there.
‘Managing Real Madrid. Great. Ten years in the Basque country. Great. But Liverpool?’ he says. ‘The best days of my life.’
He’s been a trail-blazer and a nomad, just as his old striking partner Kevin Keegan was, managing 11 clubs and two national teams in 13 countries in the 41 years since he left Anfield and took Swansea City straight through the four divisions.