” Something very strange happened last week, something so unusual it’s tempting to think it unique: a football manager made a joke. It was proper joke. Not an anecdote, or something contrived and worked on days in advance, but a genuine, spontaneous quip that was genuinely amusing. There is often laughter in press conferences but usually it’s polite or sycophantic depending on your point of view; often, hearing a manager trying to be funny, you’re put in mind of Dr. Johnson’s line about the dog walking on its hind legs: it’s not so much that it’s done well but that it’s done at all. But this was a proper gag. Odder yet, it was cracked by Rafa Benitez.” SI