I n Ian Holloway’s often madcap managerial orbit, this was simply the latest in a steady succession of eccentric outbursts. Eyes bulging as he spoke, he boomed the letter “D” and promptly stabbed himself in the chest with an imaginary dagger. Next came the letter “M” alongside a blow from another invisible knife. Finally, a “W” followed by a jab to the heart. “Dead. Man. Walking,” he declared, pausing for effect between words and briefly falling into an Oscar-worthy zombie stupor. “That’s how it feels.”

To an offbeat press conference genre containing seagulls following trawlers and self-proclaimed special ones, it was a crazy new entry worthy of its subsequent viral nature. Holloway at his finest.

The clip was widely shared, there is every chance you saw it earlier this month. The general perception, from those of a neutral stance, was that one of football’s great characters had lost the plot.…