Are these the most unorthodox coaching methods in football?

Magath was in charge at Craven Cottage for just nine months, though he certainly left his mafrk in the capital is Sidwell's stories are anything to go by.

Speaking to '5Live Sport', the 34-year-old revealed how the Fulham squad was once made to stand still for 40 minutes in training and about how Magath would encourage his players to drink alcohol on away trips. 

'There was an away game where we played poorly and we got off the bus and he said, "Right I want everyone in tomorrow at eight o'clock and we are going to train". We were due a day off but we are going to be in for training,' Sidwell explained.

'So we got in and went outside, there were no balls coming out with us so we were all thinking, "Right OK," so he's just gone, "Right the formation yesterday, can you get in your positions." So we got out on the pitch, the goalkeeper, back four, midfield four and two strikers stood there and he said, "Right you didn't want to run around yesterday, we are not going to run around today" and he just blew the whistle and said everyone just stand still and we just had to stand still. 

'It was a cold day too, and there were a couple of lads with gloves on, they were off straight away, there were leaves blowing across the pitch, you couldn't make eye contact with anyone you had to just stand there and we were there for about 40 minutes just standing there. And he would just walk around, then stop, and walk around to the other side of the pitch and stop.'

The story had Jermaine Jenas in fits of laughter but that was noth the only anecdote the one-time Chelsea man had to share.

He also told listeners how Magath would encourage his players to meet up for a pint on away days.

'Every away game, you would get to the hotel and have a couple of hours down-time and then it's dinner and back to the rooms for a massage or whatever, it was your own time," said Sidwell.

'On away trips he demanded we had dinner all together, then obviously it was just back to the rooms. But at nine o'clock everyone had to be back downstairs at the bar for a pint. And we're not talking about a soft drink either. This was every away trip.

'It's obviously a tradition in Germany, he didn't force people to have alcohol, if you wanted a pint you could have a pint, if you wanted a glass of wine you could have that or whatever but he just wanted everyone basically together all the time.' 

Magath won three Bundesliga titles in Germany: two with Bayern Munich and one with Wolfsburg, but it is fait to say that he was less of a success in the English game, with Fulham being relegated from the top flight at the end of the 2014-15 season.