José Luis Mendilíbar says he likes the “sound of football”, boot on ball, and mostly football likes the sound of him. Old school and potty mouthed, no pretence or pretentiousness, he’s not messing about. Anti-VAR, pro-fans, attacking authorities and challenging charlatans, cutting through the crap, he has a way with words and his way is direct, blunt, warm and often funny. The coach whose response to a former player apologising for scoring against him was “don’t do it, then” and who admitted “we’re a bunch of cheats in La Liga; touch us and it’s like someone killed us”. He is the man one footballer says could never manage a big club because the media would murder him if he said in Madrid and Barcelona what he says in Eibar.