THIS week I was at a testimonial dinner in London for Surrey cricketer Adam Hollioake where I bumped into many football people.

I had a long chat with the youngest Premiership manager, Chris Coleman of Fulham, who impressed me very much. Chris gave a lot of credit for his own success to the ex-Crystal Palace manager Alan Smith, who he talks to a lot.

In my early days being able to talk to legends like Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Jock Stein, pictured above - all different in their mannerisms and character but all highly successful and all willing to give advice to youngsters coming through.

I remember Sir Matt, in his nice, quiet way which disguised that rod of steel which all successful managers must have, talking to me about dealing with directors.

He said: "Always listen to what they say to you about football, and then do what you were going to do anyway."

Dear old Shanks had a different approach to directors. For him it was more a 'them and us' situation.

He liked to call them 'the decorators' and he famously said to me once: "You don't want the decorators in too often, son."

Times have changed but I still think that quartet would be successful - yet even they would have to deal with agents whether they liked it or not. However the Kieron Dyer situation has proved that they are not all doing their job properly.

The news was not all bad about young players, though.

An impressive England performance gave Ian Wright's foster son Shaun Wright-Phillips an opportunity which, after an understandably nervous start, he took well, capping his first appearance with a good goal.

He has given Sven another option with an orthodox type of winger who, unlike David Beckham, has the ability to go past defenders with pace and control, enabling the skipper to either play in a central midfield position he favours or to be left on the bench if he is not up to scratch.