Former Formula One boss Eddie Jordan was a virtual guest on Tuesday's Off The Ball as he looked back on some aspects of his fascinating career.
Jordan admitted his mind is "always on the future" but he was happy to look back with Joe Molloy to time spent with a fellow Irishman who he managed in Formula One, Eddie Irvine.
Joe asked Jordan about his fitness having seen footage of him jogging early in the morning, the reason for the exercise was to shame his then driver, Irvine, into getting fit.
"That was only to get Eddie Irvine to get out and do something. He used to sit on his butt in the apartment all day, he was the laziest driver of all time."
Jordan thinks highly of Irvine: "It’s a shame because he could have been a world champion so easily."
Eddie Irvine wasn't really a jogging kind of guy, according to his former boss, but Jordan still tried.
"That was his style, he was a nightclub guy he didn’t usually wake up until 12pm or even later sometimes."
"I remember I went out and hired a teacher who used to look after my gym classes three times a week.
"So I said 'look Barry, can you come try sort this guy out,' so I intimidated him into almost embarrassment so that Irvine would be out jogging on the streets of Oxford at 7:30am.
"I often wondered if he was just on the way home from the clubs or whether he had actually just gotten up.
"That was Eddie Irvine, he’s a different animal."
Jordan doesn't go so far as to say he and Irvine clashed, but the driver seems to have created plenty of professional stress for his old boss.
"He was hilarious to work with but very infuriating, I tell you - he used to drive me round the twist.
"That’s the way life is, sport picks up lots of great characters all through life."
How to maximise it
While Irvine may not have been the easiest to manage, Jordan is full of praise for Irvine the man and how he has continued to operate successfully following his racing career with the same principles as when he drove.
"He had a very cunning way of doing things," recalled Jordan. "On reflection he was probably one of the cleverest and smartest people, not by education just by guile.
"He had a great ability to know where he was and how to maximise it. I'm not just talking about in motor racing but I'm talking about in latter life.
"His ability to make money, his understanding of when the best time is to move in or move out of things.
"He has an uncanny knack of seeing the position that is in front of him and taking full value out of it."
Jordan with the benefit of time, has seen the futility in his frustration with Irvine to almost envy his former driver's character.
"I used to get so annoyed with him," says the former F1 boss, "but I can see now his modus operandi, how he operated and how he went though life.
"He's a carefree guy, that's how it was.
"I'd like to think I am (carefree) but not in the realms of Eddie Irvine."
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