'I don’t believe you can’t have a bit of a joke or banter. We have to be careful – managers now are just saying the same things' Sean Dyche says football takes itself too seriously

Sean Dyche is back in the Premier League, answering Evangelos Marinakis' Nottingham Forest distress signal following the sacking of Ange Postecoglou.

The former Everton and Burnley boss takes over a Forest side in flux that currently sit in the bottom three following his predecessor's ill-fated 39-day reign at the City Ground and Dyche will know he has to quickly stop Forest's recent slide.

But the man who has previously used press conferences to explain his favourite flavour of crisps (Pickled Onion Monster Munch, as you asked) and discussed eating worms with FourFourTwo, aims to have some laughs on the way, even if he does fear that football is taking itself too seriously these days.

Sean Dyche on whether football takes itself too seriously

"I think there is an undercurrent of that and it is moving in that direction, but I hope it doesn’t," he admits to FourFourTwo. "The demand for the characters in the game to be so pure and so the same is a worry. Say one bad word and you’ll get blasted out of the room. Managers and players are super safe, they’re advised about everything and that’s a worry.

"I get the coverage is huge, it’s global and you have to conduct yourself a certain way, but I don’t believe you can’t have a bit of a joke or banter. I got in plenty of trouble just for having a laugh. We have to be careful – managers now are just saying the same things.

And staying on the subject of what was better in years gone past, we then ask Dyche if football as also better back when centre-halves- the position he used to play - could have the first few without fear of the referee.

“That’s a tricky one,” he answers. “I don’t think allowing a few ‘free ones’ was great and certainly didn’t help a game’s attacking freedom. Having said that, I do think we’ve gone a bit too far now.

“Players work within the rules, like they always have done, but the awards for going down too easily have made diving a part of the game and I don’t think that’s good for football. The rules of the game have got to such an odd level that we’re veering towards something no longer physical.

“I don’t want to see it going back to the days when I started out, but I’d love to see the competitive edge go back to, say, the late 1990s or early 2000s levels. That was the best time. It was physical, there were duels all over the pitch. The crowds loved it.

“Real competition, real physicality, tackles going in – real tackles, not dirty ones from behind and going through players, but real well-timed and robust challenges at pace. Crowds love that and it adds to the game.

“I think of the likes of Des Walker, the cleanest of defenders but an ultra-competitive one, and to see him go up against the best forwards was pure sporting pleasure.”