However, it would now take something special to prise him away from his project on the south coast.
"If it's something I couldn't refuse, even the chairman would say to me 'If you need to go, go'," he said. "But I won't say yes to just anything. I'm enjoying my time here, I think we can do better, we're playing the way I want, at the moment we're top. What more? Seriously, why? My aim, of course, is to manage at the top level, and that means the Premier League, or La Liga, or a national team. But I'm only 42, so I'm not in a hurry."
The two real positives here are 1)he is totally committed to us and 2)we will have a footballing legacy to work with if and when he does move on. This means that the next manager can be selected as a 'footballing style' manager inthe mould of Gus and not a humph it up the middle man.