Sean Dyche lives for a laugh. He's very serious about his football but if banter makes the world go round, Dyche is usually willing to help give it a spin.
The Nottingham Forest manager isn't likely to face much of a rivalry besides the Reds' UEFA-inspired enmity with Crystal Palace but he is a manager built for big derby days.
But Dyche knows the score. His time on Merseyside as the manager of Everton brought him into contact with rival supporters but we all bleed the same colour in the end.
"Im not trying to curry favour when I say this," Dyche tells FourFourTwo. "A lot of Blues will hammer me for this, but when we were struggling and things were looking bleak, so many Liverpool fans would come up to me and say, 'Forget the rivalries online and all that, we dont want you to go down.'
"They loved the rivalry, the banter, the derbies themselves, the pride in the city that was always evident. That really was en masse.
"I cant remember a bad word or being mistreated by Liverpool fans. Around the ground you might on matchday, thats fine and normal, but I loved the place.
"We would eat at Three Piggies or have a curry at Millon, both on Allerton Road, or an Italian at Vincenzo and we were always so well treated.
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"They were just good people. I liked that there was a fairness to the place.
"You take a bit of heat, of course, but nothing was nasty. I loved that side of the city."
Dyche faced former Reds manager Jurgen Klopp in three Merseyside derbies, losing twice at Anfield but beating Liverpool at Goodison Park thanks to goals from Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Everton are winless in three matches against Liverpool since Dyche's departure, each contested between his successor, David Moyes, and new Liverpool manager Arne Slot.
The last Merseyside derby played at Goodison Park was evened up by a dramatic stoppage-time equaliser from James Tarkowski, a Dyche favourite at both Burnley and Everton.
Dyche did get the better of Slot in their first encounter. After replacing Ange Postecoglou at Forest, he led his team to a 3-0 win at Anfield in November.
Chris is a Warwickshire-based freelance writer, Editor-in-Chief of AVillaFan.com, author of the High Protein Beef Paste football newsletter and owner of Aston Villa Review. He supports Northern Premier League Midlands Division club Coventry Sphinx.
