Slovenia - meeting Ziva

THERE are one or two things which occasionally annoy me about this job.

Meeting Miss Slovenia 2004 is not necessarily one of those things.

The Ljubljana beauty, who was subsequently an entrant into the Miss World contest later that same year, is Albion's newest fan after checking into the Grand Hotel Primus today.

She even dressed for the occasion, wearing a blue and white outfit.

Luckily for the Birmingham Mail, the glorious and highly intelligent Ziva Vadnov - not just a pretty face, she speaks five languages - was more than willing to pose outside the hotel with an Albion training kit and passed on her best wishes to the club for the forthcoming season.

With support like that, Roberto Di Matteo's job has just got easier.

Elsewhere, one person who won't be making many phonecalls for a while is Bill Styles, the club's assistant head of sports science.

Bill does a lot of invaluable work behind the scenes to help players in their recovery from injuries and has played a huge role helping to organise this Slovenian tour.

But he got himself into hot water - literally - when he decided to take an evening dip in the hotel's indoor pool.

After easing himself into the warm pool, all was well until that frightful moment hit him - the one you get when it dawns on you that you've forgotten to empty your pockets.

Bill duly pulled out a totally submerged mobile phone and wallet. Bet he felt a right drip...(sorry).

Roberto Di Matteo, meanwhile, was on 'interview duty' today. The first proper chance I've had to sit down with the new Albion gaffer for a proper chat.

It's easy to forget, while speaking to the Italian, that he's worked for some of the finest managers and coaches in football.

Arrigo Sacchi, Dino Zoff, Zdenek Zeman, Ruud Gullit, Gianluca Vialli, Claudio Ranieri and Cesare Maldini.

With a background like that, and a burning ambition and single-mindedness which is obvious when you speak to him, you wonder what he'll bring to Albion's table this season...