How life has changed for ex-Chelsea favourite Gus Poyet.
The former goal-scoring midfielder, capped 23 times by Uruguay who also spent eight years with Spanish club Real Zaragoza, is now adjusting to a less glamorous side of football as manager of Brighton & Hove Albion in England's third-tier.
"If we win the game (against Carlisle) hopefully I will be able to watch it, but if we lose then I might have to miss it as we will have some talking to do," Poyet told Reuters on his mobile phone, while on the Brighton to London line.
"I enjoy a bit of golf but since I took this job three months ago I have probably played nine holes," Poyet said.
"So my handicap is going high, high, high. I was playing off 14 but now I would probably be more like 18." Poyet, 42, is discovering at first hand that managing a football club is not all about five-a-sides and standing on the touchline on match-days.
"This is the other side of management that nobody knows," he added. "People see you on the pitch and think that's all there is to it. But I don't mind the other stuff because you can't do your job without having good relationships."
He was not short of honours, winning the Copa del Ray and the Cup Winners' Cup at Zaragoza and also the Copa America with his country in 1995 when he was voted Player of the Tournament.
"I started looking at the way managers did things and I took note of what I liked and what I didn't like," Poyet said.
"I couldn't pick out a manager as being the biggest influence as I learned from all of them."
As for Saturday's semi-final, Poyet gives Villa more hope than many might think after their 7-1 thrashing at Stamford Bridge in a Premier League game less than two weeks ago. England midfielder Frank Lampard netted four times.
"It's a one-off game and things are always different in a semi-final," Poyet said.
