WORKING with El-Hadji Diouf was always a hair-raising experience for Wanderers boss Gary Megson, not least on the first day he met the players at Euxton.

The Senegal star – well known for his hi-jinx in the dressing room – hopes to face his old club at the Stadium of Light today for the first time since making a £2.5million move in July.

And he might well be looking to make the same striking impression with his performance as he did on Megson the first time they met.

“I had seen the players before but the first time we met officially, I’d got them all together in the first team dressing room up at Euxton,” the manager explained.

“The players were all sat down and Diouffy was sat there with a grin on his face, wearing a great big ginger wig.

“The sight of that on a black guy with white hair and a big gold tooth, well, the wig made him look better actually. It got him in the team.

“That just epitomised him, he’s a larger than life character. An absolute nutcase, but he was great when he was here, he always had a smile on his face.”

There are plenty of similar stories from Diouf’s four years at the Reebok. But even in the 10 months Megson enjoyed as his manager, there was plenty to keep him occupied.

What about the one where he dropped out of a bleep test run “before the lady from the canteen” only to join in again five minutes later? Or the day he missed a Monday morning training session because of a phantom glandular illness which was miraculously cleared in three hours?

“That was another fine,” recalled Megson. “That’s one thing we do miss – we could have built a new training ground with the amount of money he used to bring in.”

But for all the good times, there is still a sense around the Reebok that Diouf announced his intention to jump ship before he should.

Senior members of the dressing room were not impressed when he declared, amid a relegation battle, that he would be off to seek pastures new regardless of the club’s position.

“It got to the point where he had to move on after he said what he said,” Megson admitted.

“He said he was going to leave whether we stayed up or went down, which didn’t go down particularly brilliantly with everybody else in the dressing room, nor myself.

“He did play his part in us staying up to be perfectly fair to him but to say that while he was under contract was a bit ill-timed, to say the least.”

Kevin Davies claimed yesterday that Diouf would be among the best players in Europe had he put his vast talent to its best use – a statement backed up by his manager.

“He has got some serious strengths and then some weaknesses that hold him back a little bit,” he said. “He is a bit of a maverick and can turn the game in a blink of an eye but the defensive side of his game sometimes means he can turn it the other way. If he wants to fulfil his potential then he will have to improve on them.”

Sunderland go into today’s game having lost their last three home games, just a point above the relegation zone.

Pressure is building on Wearside for the multi-million pound squad assembled by Roy Keane to deliver – yet despite boosting his ranks with over £30million of talent in the summer, Megson is not surprised to see Sunderland fail to improve on last season’s struggle.

“I’m not that shocked because that’s the way the league is at the minute,” he said.

“We looked at the number of points we have at the moment and last year it was six points clear of the relegation zone but a long way from the top six.

“This year, we are three points off the relegation zone and two points off Everton in seventh – I have never known any division like it.

“You can leap up three or four places with a single win and drop the same with a defeat.

“It is mad, but all you can do is keep looking to win your next game.”