Something about Mary

Desailly in his autobiography Capitaine explains: "I wrote a letter in my mother's writing, pretending that I had an appendix operation. I played truant for 10 days. In the morning, I pretended to leave for school but went to town instead. In the early afternoon, I went into the cinema and sat through two showings until school was finished.

"I was interested in just one film, a movie that fascinated me to the point of obsession: Mary Poppins. I must have seen it 10 times, maybe 20! I know it'll make my French team-mates laugh to imagine their captain humming the songs of the divine Mary! They're going to seriously take the mickey, Sylvain Wiltord, Thierry Henry and Robert Pires. Maybe they'll sing-along with me: 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious. . . '

This all came about when Desailly was living in Nantes after moving with his family to France from his native Ghana. At the time, he was involved in the youth set-up of FC Nantes, for whom he would later make his professional debut.

He added: "My mother brought me up the African way. According to her, a son should assume his own responsibilities early and have a level of maturity beyond his years.

"I was allowed to come and go as I pleased, with enough money in my pocket to go to the cinema or elsewhere. Mum even let me buy my clothes alone, to the extent that she trusted me with a signed blank cheque. However, I betrayed her confidence when I skipped school. My Mum was no Mary Poppins and she was furious. When she found out that I'd been forging letters I got a rollicking to remember."

Perhaps Chelsea can take advantage of the revelations of his Poppins obsession and swap a win bonus for tickets to the musical version of the film when it comes to the West End in the next couple of years.

In any case, the film was good preparation for life at Stamford Bridge. Perhaps he recalls Mary Poppins's line in the Oscar-winning film - "I'm sure I haven't the faintest idea what you are talking about" - when Chelsea coach Claudio Ranieri explains some of his tactical experiments.