Former Barcelona and England striker Gary Lineker says Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish reminds him of Johan Cruyff.
Several great players have had to endure difficult careers as a manager, but Dalglish and Cruyff - both superstars on the pitch - then managed to achieve success guiding their respective teams to silverware.
And having witnessed the Reds' revival since the appointment of the Scot, Lineker has lavished praise on the 60-year-old.
"I've been in Kenny Dalglish's company many times around the world and one thing never ceases to amaze me," he wrote in his column for The News of the World.
"He'll know every player, where they came from, their strengths and weaknesses and how the manager sets his team out. To describe his knowledge as encyclopaedic is to do him a disservice.
"Tactically, he's so sharp that he leaves the rest of us for dead. He's one of those rare breed, a truly great player who made the transition to become a truly great manager. In a way, he's similar to Johan Cruyff who I worked with at Barcelona."
Lineker encountered some problems with Cruyff when the Dutchman was appointed as manager of Barcelona in 1988. Nevertheless, the ex-England international retains a healthy respect for the legendary orchestrator of 'Total Football' in the 1970s.
"I didn't get along with him as a person or a manager, basically because he wanted me out as soon as he took over and played me as a winger for six months to try to force me to quit.
"But even though we were never going to see eye-to-eye, I respected him for his incredible vision. Cruyff laid the foundations for the Barca style of today and his teams created so much space on the pitch, it was frightening.
"Like Kenny at Liverpool, he was revered at the Nou Camp as a former wonderful player and both men were a seamless fit as a manager.
"In Kenny's case, he still is."
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