"Dioufy's [gone] out [on the town] on the Friday night. So I'm coming in Saturday, we're playing at home, and we've got a phone call: 'Dioufy is out'. Dioufy comes in, and I said: 'You were out last night'. [He says:] 'I wasn't'. I said: 'Even worse, you were out in Bolton instead of Manchester. I know you were out, because only you can afford Louis Roederer Cristal [Champagne], nobody else in Bolton can' - he'd been buying all his chums Louis Roederer Cristal!"
"So I said [to him], 'You've got half an hour'. [He said:] 'What do you mean?' I said, 'you've got half an hour, and if you're playing bad, I'm going to bring you off, put the subs on, and go to the press and say "I found out he was out on a Friday night."' Man of the match."
El-Hadji Diouf went out on the Friday night before a Bolton home match and returned claiming he had not. The manager received a call that Diouf had been seen out and confronted him, noting purchases of Louis Roederer Cristal as evidence. The manager gave Diouf a half-hour ultimatum to perform or be substituted and publicly exposed in the press. Diouf responded by delivering a strong performance and earning man-of-the-match. The episode turned a potential disciplinary problem into a motivational, on-field success through pragmatic man-management.
Read at www.fourfourtwo.com
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