For a professional football manager, telling a player he has lost his place in the team is one of the most unpleasant parts of the job. Even more so when you're the player who will be playing in his place.
Andy Preece found himself having just that kind of conversation midway through his first full season as player-manager of English lower-league side Bury. The Greater Manchester club had succeeded in signing striker Jon Newby on loan from Liverpool, and Preece felt that it should be he who partnered the new recruit up front, rather than strike partner Paul Barnes.