Somehow a single John Aldridge response to a question about management incorporated Dublin, Sunderland, drink, the FA Cup and the boom in Irish football. Blackburn's Damien Duff was given a favourable mention as was Newcastle United's goalkeeper Shay Given although, having praised Given, Aldridge added: "But I hope it's his arse I see on Saturday, when he bends down to pick the ball out of the net."
As Peter Beardsley said of Aldridge, "The older he got, the sharper he got." Beardsley was referring to Aldridge's goalscoring but now 39, Aldo, as he is universally known, showed this week that his tongue has lost none of its famous Scouse edge. Nor, it should be said, have his shooting boots - three goals in only five games for Tranmere Rovers this season, taking his career total to 472 - but Aldridge will not be among the scorers today when he takes Tranmere to Newcastle. He would like to be, given that the man who bought and sold him at Liverpool was Kenny Dalglish, but Aldridge has acquired a realist's streak. Life at Tranmere has that effect.
"I'll not even be on the bench," he said. "I'm winding down and I think I will call it a day at the end of the season. Every time I play my body's a wreck for the next two days. Anyway the future is about Tranmere Rovers, not John Aldridge."
The two, however, have become one since the July day seven years ago when Tranmere profited from the disinterest of others and lured Aldridge to Prenton Park on his return from Spain. In April 1996 he became player-manager, succeeding John King.
"It came out of the blue," he recalled. "There were six games left and we were in a precarious position. We went unbeaten - won two, drew four." Tranmere finished 13th, 11th last season after being as high as fourth, but until two wins in the past week, have struggled this season. At least Aldridge knows why.
"We have sold players for £5 million and spent £900,000. I have yet to get the right balance but I think I will. Last season was the honeymoon but the reality has hit home this year; we've had to sell a lot of players."
Yet while his body may be battered, judging by his chirpyness, Aldridge's enthusiasm remains intact. In a way it is this aspect of his personality which makes Aldridge a surprising managerial success - and just keeping Tranmere in the First Division is an achievement - because rather than the dour Scot photofit chairmen find so spell-binding, Aldridge has always seemed the quintessential 50p each-way cheeky Scouser, complete with calm-down moustache.
According to him though management "has always appealed. I wanted to have a go, see if I was good enough." A new two-year contract suggests someone thinks so, a recognition that the sometimes awkward transition from one of the lads to main man has been negotiated. Not that Aldridge found the journey too difficult. "The lads have been brilliant, they know I've got a hard job and even when I've had to drop someone or not renew a contract they have understood.
"I try to be fair and loyal, I've given them the benefit of the doubt even when I later find out that I shouldn't have."
One educational feature of omitting former friends has been an increased appreciation of Dalglish's position almost a decade ago when Aldridge - 63 goals in 89 starts for Liverpool - was sold to Real Sociedad - 40 goals in 76 games - to accommodate the return of Ian Rush from Italy.
"Me and Kenny got on fine. I just disagreed with him a bit at the end. But he preferred Peter (Beardsley) and Rushie, I just thought that after all the goals I should have been given the benefit really. I understand it more now as a manager."
Any thoughts of a rift between the two men, however, should be dismissed. Dalglish and Aldridge experienced Hillsborough together and Dalglish was particularly pleased that in the Merseyside Cup final which followed that Aldridge was the first scorer. "We would have been delighted if anyone had scored," Dalglish says in his autobiography, "but we knew how much it meant to Aldo."
Aldridge was fairly happy too. "It was my first kick of the game, the fourth minute. And it was my first kick at Wembley since the penalty because I'd been substituted straight after that. It hurt a lot at the time." A further consolation was that the goal against Everton was "at the same end, same corner. A bit strange really."
Strange was also his word for the FA Cup and Aldridge feels a draw today is not an impossibility. Tranmere have already knocked out one north-east club, Sunderland, in the last round, after which he took his players to Dublin to celebrate. It is a place Aldridge would like to be in more often. "That's my ultimate, to manage Ireland. If I'm around in a few years' time, and I've proved myself, I'd swim the Irish Sea for that job."
