'I wish I’d copyrighted "utter woke nonsense". Considering I didn’t actually say it, it does follow me around' Sean Dyche on the catchphrase he never actually uttered

Unless you’ve been living under a rock with a potato for a phone for the past year, you’ll be more than familiar with the ‘utter woke nonsense’ meme.

The said piece of internet tomfoolery features a close-up of new Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche against a brick wall and - sorry to be that person who explains the joke - is usually used as a sarcastic reaction to voice a minor complaint that rarely has anything to do with wokeness.

Used in the right way, it’s hilarious, but for Dyche himself, there’s only one issue with it.

Dyche on the 'utter woke nonsense' meme

And that's the fact that the man himself - who this week took over at Nottingham Forest - never actually said it.

“I get asked about this all the time,” Dyche tells FourFourTwo. “I wish I’d copyrighted it.

“Considering I didn’t actually say it, it does follow me around.

“I’d done an interview with Matthew Syed from The Times and we went into a deep conversation about how perception is more important than the truth. Heavy stuff.

“We had discussed how coaching methods were affected by concerns for people’s feelings and the paper ran a photo of me outside a hotel.

"From that a meme was created saying “Utter woke nonsense”. It went viral."

And go viral it did, as the point that the gravel-voiced Dyche was trying to make over perception versus truth was underlined as the 54-year-old with plenty of progressive views was pictured as the ultimate old-school football man with a detest for the modern game.

However, the man himself did lean into it during his time between jobs before he accepted the call from Forest

"I’ve really been enjoying my media work, I’ve done plenty of that," he continues. Myself and my good pal Jonny Owen have done a show and a podcast – it’s called Utter Nonsense!, of course – for Talksport, which I’ve really enjoyed.

"I like showing a bit more of me, rather than the perceptions people have of me as a manager. I like having a laugh, showing my character and getting the feedback from people saying they didn’t know I was like that."