Mark Noble admits that he and Scott Parker begged Gianfranco Zola to come out of retirement at the age of 43 and play for the Irons.
The diminutive Italian became a legend in the Premier League after starring for Chelsea between 1996 and 2003. 
He eventually finished up his playing career in 2005 with Cagliari in Italy, before moving into management, and he ended up being appointed Irons boss in 2008.
In his first season, the Irons finished ninth, but were then dragged into a relegation battle in his second season.
While the Irons did avoid the drop, finishing 17th and five points ahead of relegated Wigan Athletic, Noble claims that he and Parker both tried to convince Zola to lace up his boots once again, as he was so good in training.
Speaking to Rio Ferdinand’s FIVE YouTube show, as transcribed by the Daily Mirror, Noble recalled: “This is serious. We were struggling at the time and we had a lot of injuries, I think me and Scotty Parker said to him, because he was so good in training, he was so fit, we said ‘you might have to sign up as a player/manager,’ because he was that good.
“Obviously he watched for a while and then he joined in one session. The ball got slapped into him and his first touch was incredible, and then he chipped Robert Green from just outside of the box. The lads were like ‘that was special.’
“The further the season went on, we were struggling. We said to him ‘look, why don’t you sign up as a player, you can come on in the last 20 minutes and create something.’ He was that good, he was still as fit as anything, ripped to shreds but Gianfranco is the sort of guy that was sort of embarrassed by that.
“He was quite shy as a person, but we were serious he was that good, we were serious. Luckily enough we escaped and Scotty scored a fantastic goal to keep us up, but what a lovely man. What a top, top guy.”
Zola was sacked at the end of the 2009/10 season and was eventually replaced by Avram Grant, who took us down. Fun times!