Richard Hercock: Megson and Warnock managing to wear their heart on their sleeves

Everyone has their favourites: David Beckham scoring from the halfway line at Wimbledon, that memorable seven-goal Anfield thriller between Liverpool and Newcastle United, and Andy Cole’s five-goal haul against Ipswich Town (a 9-0 drubbing, a record Premier League score).

Who will forget Kevin Keegan flopping over the Anfield hoarding as Stan Collymore netted for the Reds?

Yet when I think back over the last two decades, some of the more memorable moments have come off the field of play.

Managers are a law unto themselves. The modern-day professional undergoes media training to learn how to deal with probing questions from an eager journalist.

But sometimes emotions take over. For pure entertainment, what can beat a raging Keegan’s “I would love it...” rant responding to Ferguson’s taunts as Newcastle United and Manchester United battled it out for the title in 1996?

What about Phil Brown when he kept his Hull City side on the pitch for his half-time team talk at Manchester City? Not exactly in the coaching manual, but it made for amazing television.

Or when Ron Atkinson abruptly ended a Sky television interview, after seeing his Coventry City side lose to Southampton in a relegation scrap?

Atkinson did not take too kindly to the questioning, fuming: “I’m sorry... you can sit there and play with all your silly machines. If the boys play badly I’ll whip ’em, but I ain’t whipping them for that. Who was the man of the match by the way?”

Sky presenter Richard Keys said that it was the Southampton goalkeeper Dave Beasant. “So we must have played not bad then. Thanks lads, goodnight.”

Atkinson then threw his headphones across screen at the producer, only to instantly realise his gaffe and apologise.

But after last weekend’s fiasco at Old Trafford I think we have more video gems which will last the test of time. The post-match interviews with Sir Alex Ferguson and Kenny Dalglish were stunning, for differing reasons.

This was the game where Luis Suarez snubbed a pre-match handshake with Patrice Evra, to set the tone for a torrid afternoon which did football no favours.

“Bang out of order,” was Dalglish’s verdict on any criticism of Suarez. The Scot is passionate about Liverpool but his attempts at defending the indefensible just felt like you were watching a car crash. You wanted him to stop talking, because it was a big hole he was digging. He even trotted out Arsene Wenger’s favourite line as an escape route about not seeing an incident.

In response, Ferguson was at his best, the game’s elder statesman slamming Suarez for his lack of handshake and some could even interpret what he said as trying to defend Liverpool’s good name. A first for everything, I suppose.

“For a club with their history, I’d get rid of him, I really would,” Ferguson said of Suarez. “He is a disgrace to Liverpool Football Club. That player should not be allowed to play for Liverpool again. The history that club has got... and he does that today. It could have caused a riot. I was really disappointed in that guy.”

Obviously, these are just the screen-stealers which we see.

But having sat in my fair share of interviews, it is amazing how managers deal with the media.

Leeds United’s new manager Neil Warnock is a journalist’s dream, in that he is never slow in venturing his opinion.

Managers, like fans, can be emotional after games and when lifelong Blades fan Warnock was at Sheffield United, it simply magnified his feelings.

Across the city at Hillsborough, Gary Megson is cut from the same cloth. He was brought up watching his dad, Don, playing for the Owls in the Sixties and has carried a candle for Wednesday ever since.

Those who remember him from the Premier League with the likes of Bolton will know he was no shrinking violet in saying what he thought. But at Wednesday, Megson, right, really wears his heart on his sleeve. After losing to lowly Exeter City, Megson delivered a scathing attack on his players.

Come Monday morning, Megson had calmed down and looked back on his post-match outburst with a tinge of regret.

“I was so negative, but I was just devastated by the result,” he said. “It was probably the most negative interview I have ever done. You people, journalists, like me for it. Some people say you should be positive and not say those things, but I have always been like that. I have always said what I think.

“I have been on these media courses and I can’t do it like these politicians, try and find a shining light. I listen to some managers, especially in the Premier League, they are in all sorts of trouble and talking about the great corner they won after four minutes when they have been beaten.I have never been like that and I always talk honestly and say what I think.”

Like most managers, when they watch the match back on dvd, they realise they were not as good, or as bad, as they originally thought.

Give me a manager who talks from the heart any day of the week over those who are quoting chapter and verse from their media training to try to deflect from the questions asked.

It reminds me of snooker player Shaun Murphy, when he first burst onto the scene in 2005. As a rank outsider, he had an amazing 17 days at the World Championship at the Crucible to be crowned champion. In every single post-match interview he gave, he was charming and eloquent. But every time he had a ‘line’ for the assembled media, like how he was wearing sequinned trousers and would love to go on Strictly Come Dancing. Sure enough, that was the story in the next day’s papers, but it was all too polished and trained. His intensive media training meant he knew how to work the press.

Murphy is not alone, and this is no slight on the likeable cue man who used to live down the road in Rotherham; you see many sports folk giving rehearsed retorts in interviews.

But the next time you hear a passionate interviewee, simply sit back and embrace the moment.