Thankfully they didn’t. The clouds lifted, enough at least to begin a new path with the help of current partner Danielle in her hometown of Chester.

Just not in football, Harrison still – as he puts it – “poisoned” by his experiences, not even watching games on TV and instead spending days on projects renovating and selling properties.

But then he turned 30 and serendipity took over, starting with a surprise birthday party.

With Danielle organising the celebration, the band she booked had let her down and, by chance, former Wrexham midfielder and keen amateur guitarist Gareth Owen was in the duo who answered an SOS to provide the background music.

Over a few beers, talk naturally turned to football. Owen, then player-manager at Welsh side Airbus, needed an assistant.

“I wasn’t interested,” Harrison recalls. “It still took a couple of weeks before he rang again, we met for a coffee, and he talked me around into saying ‘Let’s give it a go’ and I was helping out with training a couple of times a week.”

The chain reaction that led to that Fiorentina touchline had begun.

Within the year, Owen left. Harrison, with the poison gone, was moved up to manager, hurriedly booking himself on to a Football Association of Wales coaching course to try and complete the required badges.

It started with him being “a typical, arrogant ex-footballer” not interested in listening to classroom coaches, but he soon became fully invested.

Within three years Harrison was managing the Welsh champions TNS, conscious players such as Wales’ Steve Evans were little more than a year his junior, but embracing the new path he had not looked for.

With attractive football, silverware and a world record 27-match winning run, that road soon took him to Hartlepool, recently relegated from the Football League, but – in keeping – it didn’t go to plan. “Horrendous” is how Harrison puts it after being sacked within seven months.

“I was always going to take my family there with me and Danielle was fully supportive, as she always has been,” he says.

“But they had the gall to demand that commitment to bring my family 200 miles with me – and yet within seven months I was being told by the same owner nothing was going to be paid. The telephone bills. The heating. The players. Me. One game at Dagenham we had to play in our away kit and didn’t have any training gear because of a laundry bill.”

Rishabh Pant has “no injury concerns” and is set to keep wickets for India while the team will decide on Jasprit Bumrah’s workload after the second Test against New Zealand starting here on Thursday, said head coach Gautam Gambhir.

Pant copped a blow on the second day of the opening Test in Bengaluru and was replaced by Dhruv Jurel behind the wickets. Pant returned to score a fluent 99 in the second innings but did not keep wickets.

Pant had a hit at the nets and also had a wicket-keeping drill with Gambhir on Tuesday.

“Absolutely,” Gambhir said on Wednesday when asked if everything was fine with the wicketkeeper-batter.

“I think he’s going to keep wickets tomorrow. (There are) no other fitness concerns,” he added.

Bumrah has played each of the three Tests at home this season and with the Australia tour less than a month away, India will decide on resting the ace fast bowler after the second Test.

“Once the series is over, we still have around 10 or 12 days before the (first) Test starts in Australia. That is enough break for our fast bowlers as well. But we will still monitor after this Test match where Jasprit Bumrah is,” Gambhir said.

“But it’s not only about Jasprit Bumrah. It’s about with all the fast bowlers as well. We want to keep them fresh. We know that obviously we’ve got a long tour and an important tour of Australia.

“Workload management will definitely depend on what the outcome of this Test match is and how much have they bowled in this match,” he added.

Gambhir said that Shubman Gill, who missed the Bengaluru Test due to stiffness in his neck, will play the match as the No. 3 batter has attained full match fitness.

“Shubman Gill isn’t coming into the side, he was already there. He was injured in the last match. It’s not the case that he’s new to the team. Because of the injury, he didn’t play the last match. He had an issue with his neck.

“Given how he performed against Bangladesh, he will come back into the playing XI. The rest of the team will be decided tomorrow (Thursday morning before toss),” he said.

Gambhir underlined his coaching philosophy of putting more emphasis on wins even against all odds, as India staged a remarkable fightback in Bengaluru.

“This is why we call cricket and sports as big levellers. If you enjoyed such days as we did in Kanpur, then you will have to accept such days as we did in Bangalore,” he said.

“But the good thing was that despite being all out for 46, we were still looking to win the Test that was important. This is the way we want to play cricket. I have said before (also) that our first option will always be to win and the second option will be to draw.”

“There was no such intention in the second innings that we were looking to play out the next two-and-a-half days. We were thinking about how to make the match out of it and if you ask me, we were probably 100 runs away,” he added.

Gambhir said India showed the intent with which they want to play Test cricket in the opening match.

“I don’t think there will be many teams who will be thinking like this even after being shot out for 46, when you have to bat more than two-and-a-half days but this is the quality (we have) and this is the kind of cricket we want to play in the future,” he said.

Gambhir said batting to save a Test is not likely anymore since T20 cricket has made batters more aggressive.

“To a certain extent, it’s good because when I batted in Napier, the T20 format was just introduced,” said India’s 2007 T20 World Cup winner.

“Now, with so much of T20 cricket around, you expect players to be more aggressive. The game has changed and we have to accept that as well. We will need a lot of temperament and a lot of mental toughness to bat for two or two-and-a-half days.

“But again, if the decision of the leadership group or the team management is to just go there and still try to win the game, that is very important.”

“Had we decided to bat two-and-a-half days, the guys would have batted much differently. But the intention was always to make the game out of it, irrespective of where we are (and) how much behind we are in the game,” he added. 

HARRY KANE was dubbed the “best striker in the world” for his genius finish against Barcelona.

But it was another ex-Premier League star who grabbed the match-ball and the headlines.

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The England captain, 31, saw his Bayern Munich side fall behind with just 57 seconds on the clock.

But he responded in some style at the Barcelona Olympic Stadium – used while the Nou Camp is renovated.

With 18 minutes gone, Michael Olise switched the play to Serge Gnabry in the left channel.

And the former Arsenal man got into the box before crossing for the ex-Tottenham striker.

It flashed across the face of goal at pace and at a difficult height.

But Kane showed expert ability to acrobatically redivert the volley with his instep.

The ball flew back past Barca goalkeeper Inaki Pena Sotorres and into the net as the No9 landed on the turf after his flying finish.

And fans could not get enough of the “beautiful” goal from the special striker, whose 34 Champions League goals have all come from inside the area.

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One said: “Harry Kane is the best striker in the world.”

Another wrote: “Harry Kane is a very very very very very good football player.”

A third added: “Harry Kane is an insane player.”

And a final user replied: “That Kane finish… WOW.”

Ironically, it was the second time on the night Kane had found that corner of the net.

However, his initial celebrations were cut short when his tenth-minute header was ruled out by VAR for a marginal offside.

Even so, his exquisite equaliser took Kane’s tally in this season’s Champions League to five – top of the Golden Boot race.

He hit four, including four penalties, as Bayern thumped Dinamo Zagreb 9-2 but he fired a blank in the shock 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa.

That also sees Kane way out in front as the top scorer in the Champions League since the start of last season – with his 13 four clear of Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior on nine.

But aside from his personal triumph and numbers, it turned into a nightmare evening for Kane in Spain.

Barcelona made the best start possible as captain Raphinha pounced on a super high line and a defensive error.

Joshua Kimmich messed up his clearance and the ex-Leeds man raced through before rounding Manuel Neuer to break the deadlock in the first minute.

But following Kane’s equaliser, Barca retook the lead when Robert Lewandowski knocked into an ungarded net against his former employers.

The goal was allowed to stand when a push on Kim Min-jae as he jumped to head clear was judged by VAR not to be enough for a foul in the build-up.

And it was 3-1 on the stroke of half-time.

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A gorgeous inch-perfect cross-field 60-yard pass from Marc Casado picked out Raphinha and he jinxed into the area before curling into the far corner beyond the diving Neuer.

Lamine Yamal arguably delivered an even better ball ten minutes after the break, though, as Raphinha took it down superbly on his chest, raced clear and took his shot early to find the bottom corner and complete a stunning hat-trick.

That prompted a quadruple sub from fuming Bayern boss Vincent Kompany.

Raphinha was given a standing ovation when withdrawn on 76 minutes – although he had already handed the armband over to the returning Frenkie de Jong earlier on in the second half.

Lewandowski should have made it 5-1 late on but somehow didn’t turn home Yamal’s brilliant dinked cross.

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ERLING HAALAND continues to defy belief.

Manchester City aren’t far off doing the same on night’s like this.

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An absolutely dominant display topped off by a goal from Haaland the likes of which The Etihad has never seen.

More of that later.

They were set on their way last night through the brilliance of his home grown favourite Phil Foden to give them a half time lead.

Haaland seemed to defy physics, gravity and everything else to turn the ball homeon 58 minutes.

John Stones with a looping header on 64, Haaland with his second four minutes later and Matheus Nunes from the spot two minutes from time completed the rout.

First Foden who put his own name in the history books last season winning both the Football Writers and PFA players of the year trophies after bagging 28 goals for his club and country.

The start to this season has not been without it’s problems, however, with many wondering why this was only his fourth start to the campaign.

Particularly with Kevin de Bruyne out injured.

Manager Pep Guardiola has tried to clear it up claiming injury niggles and ilness have been to blame for his stuttering start.

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He showed with a cracking goal and an assist in the 4-0 win over Slovan Bratislava on mathday two of this season Champions League that he has lost non his skill for all that.

He kept his place against Fulham and it was his ball in for John Stones last gasp goal after coming on as a sub in the second-half.

As Guardiola says: “You realise immediately when he is happy and fit and mentally in the right moment, you realise immediately he’s getting better and better.”

He showed that after just three minutes against Sparta.

Receiving a ball from Manuel Akanji he ducked inside two men, moved the ball onto his left foot and arrowed a shot back arcoss Peter Vindahl into the far bottom corner.

City off and running and immediately looking for a second.

With his very first touch on 10 minutes Erling Haaland’s header was only denied by a spectacular save from Vindahl.

Ilkay Gundogan was making is 100th Champions League appearance, only the 48th player in history to do so and second in City colours after Fernandinho.

His corner on 27 minutes found Haaland again with a header but this time his effort was hacked away from in front of the goal.

In an instant Sparta broke through Veljko Birmancevic and nearly had an equaliser but City number two goalkeeper Stefan Ortega dived full length to deny him with his finger tips.

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He was one of five changes to the starting City side.

You can change the names but the football always seems to stay the same.

They were camped in the Sparta half for most of game and that dominance showed in the scoreline after the break.

Just three three minutes into that second period from Foden’s corner Angelo Preciado headed the ball off his own post.

In the ensuing scramble Nathan Ake turned it in but the VAR also spotted a handball by the City player.

No worries, City kept at it and when Savinho crossed another Haaland header was denied by another fine save.

Then the two combined again and this time the net bulged and the crowd gasped.

Savinho raced to the byline and chipped the ball back across goal and then this happened.

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Haaland took to the air like a karate champion with his back to goal and in mid air flicked out his  left boot out to connect with the ball on the volley and send it past a stunned Vindahl.

Nobody in the stadium was quite sure at first how he had scored it.

Even Pep Guardiola who has seen it all was checking with his bench what had happened.

As the feat was replayed on the stadiums big screens the roars were replaced by expressions and sounds of disbelief.

Wow just wow.

Sunday’s hero Stones popped up with the third, a towering header from Matheus Nunes cross.

The fourth was another thing of beauty for different reasons as City glided their way upfield sharing the ball between the players.

Rico Lewis, having a fine game turned and began it all finding Foden who strode down the centre of the park like he owned.

He offloaded the ball to Nunes, and as the Sparta players looked this way and that the ball came back inside for Haaland to curl a low shot in.

Nunes got the goal his performance deserved after two assists as he was allowed to take the late penalty.

City exceptional.

Haaland, unbelievable.

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