As well as the bragging and the bombast, Brian frequently expressed a self-deprecating humour – often because it took the pressure off his players. He’d say he had ‘shot it’ or that his dog Del Boy ‘picked the team’ and he took no part in it. In reality, he was a complicated figure and in certain circumstances not as self-assured as he seemed. He also confessed that in being so outspoken, he had often been his worst enemy. ‘At one time people said I talked too much, and they were right – smack on. They said I was unbelievably rude, and they were smack on about that too.’