IT started with a kick. But Sean Dyche always thought it would come to this.

Well, certainly one of his school-mates did, planting the seed in the middle of a maths class.

“We were sitting there copying a lad called Heinrick Colsson’s work. (He changed his name to Robert because we used to take the Mick out of him).

“A lad called Chris, who I still see, said ‘I think you’ll be an alright player but I think you’ll be a manager’.

“That was at 13.”

He had always been a step or two ahead when it came to football after being bitten the bug at a local community centre at the tender age of seven.

“A friend called Si Howard from school said: ‘I go to this club called Ise-Lodge, do you want to come?’,” said Dyche – a child of the early 70s who, like most of that era, loved Liverpool.

“It was 10 pence for training.

“A neighbour’s dad dropped us off. The rest is history!

“I did the usual stuff, playing for school, district, county and got lots of trophies. I always had a thirst for them!

“My first player of the year trophy was for the Under 10s, I was only eight and a half – playing a year above myself.

“I was a tricky midfielder.

“I tell the first team this but all they say is ‘you just used to head it and kick it’.

“It’s not true!”

Delving into his photographic memory, which says much for his attention to detail, Dyche added: “Jim Connolly presented the trophy to me. I had a beige army shirt on, a shock of red hair, stay-pressed trousers on, burgundy shoes. At Henry Gotch School I was on the stage, which looked enormous at the time, but really it was only about 3ft high.

“The surprise was everyone thought my good friend Martin Smith, who was a striker, was going to get player of the year but he didn’t – I got it. It’s still a magic moment in my life.”

Dyche is grounded by early roots on the game, and still carries one of the first lessons he learnt with him to this day.

“Jim Hoover, who was the manager of Ise-Lodge, said ‘a great attitude is a pre-requisite. That’s the most important thing’.

“I’ll never forget it and still preach it now to the first team and to kids, and still to myself,” said the 41-year-old, who learnt also from management maestro Brian Clough at his first club, Nottingham Forest, where injury curtailed his early promise.

“I signed for Forest on a guaranteed pro contract, went through Chelsea, Villa, Leicester - clubs like that who wanted to sign me,” he explained.

“I broke my leg at 17, which stunted that.

“I was playing at the Hawthorns in the FA Youth Cup, running back towards my own goal and the goalkeeper did what most goalkeepers do when they go ‘not for me’ and just threw his leg through my shin.

“If there is a good thing – but there is a positive to every situation I believe – a good friend of mine, Steve Stone, broke his leg four days later. Now I wouldn’t wish that on him, but me and him were like Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dee for nine months, interupted by various players who were injured.

“Stuart Pearce was never injured but once had six weeks out with a hamstring. He put in the programme that Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dee had kept him going.

“We used to have a bit of banter with him, and are still friends to this day of course.”

Recalling how he began his transformation from tricky midfielder to no-nonsense centre half, Dyche added: “I came back from that injury five inches taller – I was a very late developer, growing five inches in a year and coming back a stone heavier.

“It was then that they went ‘he looks like he could be a defender’.

“Archie Gemmill said (puts on Scottish accent) ‘Hey you, you look like you’re a ****ing centre half’.

“That’s how the story goes.

“I played centre half at Forest after that, went to Chesterfield, but played in midfield there.

“I played 100 games at wing back - left back, right back – either foot; centre half.

“To be honest, I made a conscious decision at 25 to get out of Chesterfield, with all due respect.

“I thought, I’m going to head it, I’m going to kick it, I’m going to lead, and I did. At Bristol City it was a real tough time for me but I learnt the most I’ve ever learnt in football in two years.

“Things were not so good and you always learn from that.

“When they’re good everything takes care of itself. When they’re not so good that’s when you learn a lot about people, learn about fans, learn about managers and how they treat people and treat players, learn about how players treat managers.

“After John Ward, Benny Lennartsson became manager – he is still one of the best I’ve seen work and yet the players weren’t having it.

“He was so far in front of his time. He must have been six or seven years in front of what we were trying to do in England.

“He went to Viking Stavanger, who beat Chelsea in Europe, so he was no mug obviously. I could smell it on him. I thought ‘you’re beyond this’.

“The players all moaned but I said ‘shut up you lot, he knows what he’s doing’.

“They just weren’t ready for that.”

Dyche escaped to Luton on loan before moving to Millwall, where in three years he enjoyed promotion and suffered a near miss on a place in the Premier League, before joining Watford.

Dyche continued: “I went on loan to Luton then to Millwall and then Watford. At Millwall I was beginning to get involved with the coaching – not hands on, but I was thirsty for it. When I was at Chesterfield dealing with John Duncan – who is still a good friend and a big influence on my career – and Kevin Randall, I started learning about tactics then.

“I was 24/25. That’s when it was first niggling at me.

“By the time I went to Millwall, when I’d just turned 30, I took my B licence and then had kids and all the rest of it in the meantime so then I took my A licence four or five years later, after we had our little girl in the summer.”

The birth of his second child coincided with his final move of his playing career to Northampton Town, helping the Cobblers to win promotion from League Two.

“Just as I finished my A licence and, as it turns out football - although I thought I had another year left in me at 36 - Watford got in touch,” said Dyche.

A little over 20 years on, class-mate Chris’s prediction was on the path to coming to fruition.