Gordon Strachan, David O'Leary revealed, always made the tea when the pair were roomies in their playing days with Leeds United. "And a very good cup of tea it was, too," he added, a tad condescendingly.
The balance of power, one senses, will never change. On Saturday afternoon the Southampton manager strutted the touchline like a demented troll, pulling lumps out of his red mane, while the tall, dark O'Leary sat with an air of dispassionate cool a few yards away.
Leeds United allowed Southampton to do all the running about before Lee Bowyer pick-pocketed the points in the 89th minute. To preserve his sanity, Strachan excavated for consolation. "Look," he pleaded, "we've just played Manchester United, Spurs and Leeds. I would have settled for a draw in all those games. As it is, we've lost to United and Leeds but beaten Spurs, so we still have the three points."
In truth, Southampton were extremely unlucky to get nothing from a game they dominated for long passages. And with the bottom half of the Premiership churning up, their position is still desperate despite taking 12 points from their last seven games.
O'Leary, meanwhile, distanced himself from speculation linking him with Manchester United.
"Everyone at Leeds has gone through an awful lot recently and I am truly grateful for the unstinting support I've received from the chairman, Peter Ridsdale. As long as Peter is chairman and wants me to stay I will be at Leeds."
Arguably, O'Leary has the one squad that can compare with Alex Ferguson's when everyone is fit. At least O'Leary has his crucial central defensive pairing of Rio Ferdinand and Jonathan Woodgate up and running. "I've always felt they have a big future together, not just with Leeds but with England," he said.
Leeds moved to third place with this win but O'Leary refused to be drawn on championship prospects, pointing instead to his old club Arsenal.
"I'd like to do what Arsene Wenger has achieved at Highbury over the past five years, which is to take this club into the Champions League on a regular basis. We don't lack ability. But we still have a lot of maturing to do compared with Arsenal, Liverpool and United. We have to learn to finish sides off after leading 3-1, as we were against Newcastle."
O'Leary said he had wanted to rest Bowyer. But the midfield player made nonsense of the notion. Playing on the left side of midfield, instead of his favoured right, he gave Leeds the extra scoring threat Southampton never had. It was Bowyer who scored the late winner after Mark Viduka's clever through-ball.
SOUTHAMPTON: Jones, Dodd, Lundekvam, Williams, Bridge, Telfer (Fernandes 77), Delap, Marsden, Svensson, Pahars, Beattie. Subs Not Used: Moss, El Khalej, Ormerod, Petrescu. Booked: Telfer.
LEEDS: Martyn, Kelly, Woodgate, Ferdinand, Harte, Mills, Batty, Smith, Bowyer, Fowler (Wilcox 90), Viduka. Subs Not Used: Robinson, McPhail, Duberry, Singh. Booked: Mills. Goals: Bowyer 89.
Referee: M Halsey (Welwyn Garden).
