It is not just York City and Fulham who stand poles apart but the club’s respective managers too.

For Terry Dolan, think of Yorkshire and the stark realities of a Bradford upbringing; windswept moors, crumbling mills, York-shire puddings and brown ale.

For Jean Tigana, think of idyllic France; sun-kissed beaches, tree-lined avenues, cafe society fine wines and croissants.

But stereotypes aside, on the pitch their careers merely underline the gaping differences.

Dolan started out with Bradford Park Avenue. A more inauspicious start is hard to imagine.

When Avenue went out of the League, Dolan enjoyed a brief flirtation with the mighty Arsenal before spurning the chance to join the Gunners in favour of Huddersfield Town.

The Terriers were then in the old Division One, but it proved an all-too brief a stay in the top-flight for Dolan and Town, as successive relegations soon followed - all the way to the Fourth Division.

To label the City chief a journeyman foot-baller would be harsh. He was a commanding midfield player with a fierce shot and reputation for dead-ball kicks.

But it would be fair to say silverware and greatness beyond the realms of lower-league football was never forthcoming.
Tigana’s career too enjoyed humble beginnings.

A midfielder like Dolan, Tigana started out amid the modest surroundings of Toulon, better known for its coast and port than for football.

However, a move to Lyon in 1978 followed three years later by a record-breaking trans-fer to Bordeaux kick-started Tigana’s rise to world-wide prominence.

Domestic honours were rapidly followed by international acclaim so that by the 1980s the Fulham chief was gracing the world’s big-gest arenas in a French midfield reckoned by many to be one of the greatest the game has ever seen.

Tigana proved the perfect foil for the likes of Platini, Giresse, Rocheteau and Fernandez as the French produced a brand of pulsating, sparkling football that only the Brazilians in terms of inventiveness and magic could match.

When it was time to swap boots and shinpads for tracksuits and chalkboards, the manage-rial careers of Dolan and Tigana continued to wind down very different roads.

After cutting his coaching teeth with Harrogate Town, Dolan’s star rose rapidly for all too brief a spell with hometown Bradford City.

Top-flight football was within touching distance but a play-off semi-final defeat at the hands of Middlesbrough was to deny Dolan what would have been his finest hour.

The hot-seat at Rochdale enabled Dolan to confirm his coaching credentials but after being lured to Hull City his time has since been spent more often than not fighting relegation battles with only a shoestring budget as backup.

In contrast, Tigana’s reputation saw him fast-tracked to the top, first with Lyon and then Monaco, where his brand of slick, passing football reaped plaudits and trophies in equal measure before finally arriving at Craven Cottage.

Today, he is bankrolled by one of the game’s richest chairmen and is free to shop in the transfer market’s equivalent of Harrods.

Dolan has to be content with scouring the bargain buckets of Woolworth’s amid a backdrop of financial uncertainty and possible football oblivion.

And yet for all their differences, real or oth-erwise, tomorrow it will matter not one jot that Dolan was handed a free transfer from Rochdale at the same time Tigana was gracing a World Cup semi-final.

For after years walking in opposite directions their paths will finally meet and the past will count for nothing.

Who said the FA Cup has lost its magic?

Terry Dolan Jean Tigana Date of birth: June 11, 1950 Date of birth: June 23, 1955 Nationality: English Nationality: French Playing career: Bradford Park Avenue (1967-70), Huddersfield Town (1970-76), Bradford City (1976 -1981), Rochdale (1981-82) Thackley (1982) Playing career: Toulon (1975-78), Lyon (1978-81), Bordeaux (1981-89), Marseille (1989-91) International caps: None International caps: 52, one goal Managerial career: Harrogate Town player-coach; Bradford City (1987-89), Rochdale (1989-91), Hull City (1991-97), Huddersfield Town (reserve team coach 1997-2000) York City (February 2000 to present) Coaching career: Lyon (1993-95), AS Mon-aco (1995-99), Fulham (April 2000 to present) Playing career highlights: Huddersfield: FA Cup quarter-finalist 1972. Bradford: promotion from Division Four 1977. Career highlights: World Cup semi-finalist 1982, 1986. European Championship winner 1984. Bordeaux: French League winner 1984, 1985, European Cup semi-finalist 1985, French Cup winner 1986, French League and Cup winner, European Cup Win-ners’ Cup semi-finalist 1987. Marseille: French League winner 1990, 1991, Euro-pean Cup finalist 1991. Managerial highlights: Bradford: Second Division play-offs 1988. Rochdale: fifth round of FA Cup, Dale’s best ever run. Managerial highlights: Lyon: League run-ners-up and League Cup finalists 1994.

Monaco: League Champions, Uefa Cup semi-finalists, League Cup semi-finalists 1997; French Cup quarter-finals, third-place in the League, Champions’ League semi-finalists 1998.
Fulham: First Division cham-pions 2001.