Cuts, bruises & that gravel voice don't begin to tell the real story of Sean Dyche... he's a top football man and man manager. And he'll need it all to succeed at City Ground

THERE is a story that Richie Sadlier tells about Sean Dyche from their days together at Millwall.

- KIERAN CUNNINGHAM

At the time, Sadlier was just 22 and the striker was starting to attract the interest of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy.

Dyche had been around the block and was a decade older than the Dubliner. He was a centre-half who spent his career toiling in the lower divisions - so he had the scars.

You don't play in that position in Leagues One and Two if you're not prepared to go to war week after week after week.

Sadlier's story concerns a Friday evening in a Sheffield hotel room. There was a knock on the door and he answered it. There was Dyche, face covered in blood and it was still pumping from a gaping wound on his head.

He'd slipped after stepping out of the shower and banged his head on the edge of the sink. Dyche barked at Sadlier to ring the physio. And it was the physio who stitched up the big defender.

Dyche declared himself fit to play Sheffield Wednesday, lasted the full 90 minutes and even picked up an extra three stitches, following a stray elbow into his mouth.

That story sums up the way many look at Sean Dyche. A proper football man. Old school. A warrior.

Will that be enough for Nottingham Forest, especially their owner, Evangelos Marinakis, who makes the powers-that-be at Leeds United that dumped Brian Clough after 44 days in charge look patient?

Ange Postecoglou was an odd appointment, even if he did deliver one of the only trophies that Tottenham have won in the modern era.