With all eyes fixed on an impending trip to Anfield, Kevin Ball made the trip to Merseyside to catch up with Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson.
The Sunderland academy graduate has enjoyed a terrific season to date, playing a pivotal role as the Reds set the pace with league leaders Chelsea while captaining England during the recent international break.
Henderson, 26, was at his best on Saturday showing grit and determination as the Black Cats produced a resilient performance at Anfield, with former mentor Ball in the stands as he watched one of his the midfielder faced his boyhood club.
Prior to the game the duo spoke to the Times, rolling back the years and looking back on their time at the Academy of Light, while highlighting some of the funnier moments they enjoyed as Henderson rose through the ranks on Wearside.
Boxing day
Henderson: “Training was always 100 per cent all out. Me and a lad called Robbie Weir [now of Leyton Orient], who was one of the older lads, were going at it — he has kicked me, I have chased him and kicked him back and we’ve ended up having a scuffle on the pitch.
“Bally sent us in because our heads have gone, but later he’s called me into his office and said: ‘We’re going to get everyone in the dressing room, we’re going to get the boxing gloves and we’re going to settle it like men.’
“Then he said: ‘I am not going to let the fight happen, but I want you to be confident and say, ‘Let’s have it out’.’ I was like, ‘Bally, I don’t know if I have got that in my locker!’
“Anyway the rest of the lads were like what the . . . I took my jacket off, grabbed the gloves, pointed at him [Weir] and said, ‘You get up here, I’m sick of you.’
“I was giving it the big one. Everyone was looking, thinking: ‘Is he going to hit him?’ and then I burst out laughing. I couldn’t go through with it anymore.
“But the great thing was it was dealt with. Robbie was smiling and just laughing. Bally had drawn a line through it using a bit of humour.”
Bally’s arrival
Ball: “Tell me this, what did you think when you first came in and I was your lead coach?”
Henderson: “I thought, ‘uh oh! When you watched Bally, he was a very hard player and he has this presence about him where you have to be on your best behaviour, you have to make sure you are doing things right.
“In one of my first sessions after coming up as a young lad, I was 16 going into the under-18s where he was manager, we were doing exercises in boxes and I have put it through someone’s legs and called ‘megs’ at the same time.
“Well, he’s stopped the session and gone off on one.
“I was having a laugh, enjoying being there, expressing myself but not thinking one of the older lads might smash me in training for taking the mickey. He was on my case from day one and I thought I’ll have to watch myself here.
“I only thought about it the other day because, without mentioning any names, one of the young lads at Liverpool tried it with me and it took me back to Sunderland and when I was that young.”
Hoovering up the competition
Ball: “He has had people wanting to knock him and kick him and he absorbs that. His attitude is ‘I will prove you wrong’ and for me that is an unbelievable testament to his character.
“Can you remember what you did to the carpet? It was the worst carpet in the world to clean and I used to know that so I would go down and check it. One day I have gone down and it’s perfect.
“Jordan’s only gone and seen the cleaner and said, ‘Can I borrow your Hoover?’ He was the only one of them all who thought of that. I thought that was genius because he is 17 and he thought outside the box.
“I thought, ‘bloody good lad’.”
Henderson: “My missus will be reading this – she’ll be like, ‘Hoover?! OK!’”