Driven by his league title failure as a player, Aston Villa’s head coach has become a compelling prospect as a manager

There is an interesting, and no doubt very common phenomenon called parasocial interaction. This is where people feel they have an intimate, reciprocal relationship with a famous person, a belief that by consuming images of that person, by thinking about them, the mirror becomes a two-way glass; that they can see you too.

We all get this to some extent, right down to the entry-level version where you glimpse a famous person in the street and, as you walk past, automatically say hello-all-right-how’s-it-going-bro-safe-see-you-later-ha-ha-ha-be-lucky-how’s-Tanya, because obviously you must know them, and then five paces down the road realise it was Howard from Take That.