He moved to Coventry in 1962, then after retiring, took up coaching. His enthusiasm was infectious, his communication skills immediately obvious, his ability to stir his players considerable. His first foray into management was with Hereford United, before he was encouraged back to Highfield Road to join Jimmy Hill’s coaching staff. In April 1986, after Don Mackay was fired, he and the managing director George Curtis took temporary control of the first team. So good were they in harness, they presided over a cup run which saw Coventry past Bolton, Manchester United, Stoke, Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds, before beating Spurs. Sillett predicted the win would transform the club, turn them into champions.

“We’re no longer shopping at the corner shop,” he said of attracting talent. “Now we’ll be shopping at Harrods.”

After the final, Curtis returned to the boardroom and Sillett was given sole control, leading the club to its highest ever league finish in 1989, seventh in the first division. After he was let go in 1990, he went on to do punditry work for television, some scouting for England under Sven Goran Eriksson and became Coventry’s life president.

He also had a short spell back at Hereford, where, after an FA Cup victory over non-league Atherstone, he showed he had lost none of his verbal dexterity. Asked by a reporter how a nerve-shreddingly close victory had felt, he replied:  “Well, it was how you would imagine making love to a hedgehog, satisfying in the end, but too prickly and uncomfortable.”

That was John Sillett, one of football’s great enthusiasts.