Since Paolo Di Canio was sacked as Sunderland manager some of the bizarre rules which he inflicted on his squad and staff have come to light.

From banning players from acknowledging fans to prohibition of ice cubes, ketchup and singing, the signs are that his rule was dictatorial to say the least.

No wonder John O'Shea and Lee Cattermole led a revolt against his management in the lead up to his overthrow by the Sunderland board.

Colin Young of the Daily Mail spoke to Joe and Dan last night about the episode.

"He had a number of strange measures that he implemented in his short 120 days in charge. One that I had been tipped off about by a member of the backroom team was that staff feared the sack over any interaction with any of the first team on matchdays," said Young.

"That included eye contact, shaking hands and God forbid, laughing and joking as they entered the stadium. I was made aware of it before the first game of the season."

He witnessed this on the opening day when Sunderland's players got off their team bus. Di Canio made a point of patting the staff on the back. But behind him the players looked subdued, keeping their eyes to the ground. The players were uncomfortable because it made them look "more aloof than they were already perceived to be".

For Young, Di Canio's beliefs about the running of a club and the application of this stance, show he is "out of touch". 

And it added an extra layer of distraction that was certainly not needed as their season failed to get going. That was not helped by his very public criticism of his players.

"Every single time anything went wrong, you're liable to getting a 40-minute ranting and raving manager screaming at you in the dressing room," said Young who felt a parting of the ways was inevitable.

"I've said all along that it was a matter of when and not if. It was a mad appointment. There were certain aspects of it which worked like that performance at Newcastle. The thing with derbies is that they can go any way and a team's attitude can decide a derby. Whatever Di Canio did that day worked. And then it just didn't. He let loose in the media but it was 100 times worse in private. It was just untenable."

A confrontation occurred in the dressing room after the defeat to West Brom on Saturday with Di Canio at full blast from the moment he walked in. He had a go at Lee Cattermole for his part in the third West Brom goal at which point other players backed up their team-mate and stood up to the manager. New signings and the old guard were united in their disapproval of the manager.

The frayed tempers eventually led senior players to speak to the board.

And with Di Canio gone, Young also touched on potential replacements.

Listen to the full and frank interview with Colin Young here or download the Football Show podcast: