Ronnie O'Sullivan's insistence that he doesn't care whether he wins or loses when he plays isn't fooling anyone, according to Irish pro Fergal O'Brien.
The Rocket can go ahead of Stephen Hendry on the all-time winner's list for the World Snooker Championship over the next week and a half with an eighth victory.
O'Sullivan has regularly spoken throughout his career about his indifference to the game, telling RTÉ Sport last October at the the Northern Ireland Open that "the trick is to lose" when he's not bothered playing at an event.
He previously suggested that his longevity in the game was due to the lack of quality players coming through behind him, with O'Sullivan saying in 2020 that he'd need "to lose an arm and a leg to fall outside the top 50".
Things are a bit different ahead of his second round clash against Hossein Vafaei which starts on Thursday.
The pair previously had beef when the Iranian insisted that the seven-time world champion was bad for the game, and that he should pack it in.
It led O'Sullivan to tell Eurosport this week that Vafaei has "learned to be quiet", before adding, "don’t rattle my cage. I love it when they call me out, I love it when they give me stick. I just love it".
After Vafaei secured his own passage through to the last-16, he quipped that O'Sullivan is "such a nice person when he’s sleeping".
All fairly tame stuff when you compare it to some of the call-outs in other sports that Barry Hearn's Matchroom Sport is involved in, but it's clear there's an edge between the duo.
Not since Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor played an infamous quarter-final at the Irish Masters at Goffs back in 1990, after Higgins had apparently threatened to have Taylor shot next time he was in Belfast, has there been quite such needle between two players.
And O'Brien says that O'Sullivan's response to Vafaei reflects the true feelings he has for snooker.
"As much as he says it [that he's not bothered] he does love the game," says O'Brien.
"If it doesn't matter then why did he cry when he won his seventh world title? He never cried before when he won, but the seventh meant that for the rest of his life he had done it.
"The fear he would have had before that he mightn't totally fulfil the potential that he could have, the seventh copper-fastened that.
"Even Stephen Hendry now acknowledges that Ronnie is the greatest ever. That's why we finally saw it [the emotion] because he'd finally done it. He needed the seventh to end the debate [about who is the greatest]; he doesn't need an eighth.
"It's done and dusted."
In terms of what Vafaei has said about O'Sullivan over the last few days, O'Brien is clear that he completely disagrees with the world number 23.
But he does accept that some of O'Sullivan's outbursts about the game can be frustrating to read. Last month, O'Sullivan called on players to go on strike over the amount of prize money on offer, before World Snooker Tour confirmed a return to China for the 2023/24 season, after Covid restrictions were removed there, with prize money of over €2million on offer for the three tournaments there.
O'Brien adds that it can be particularly annoying for other players when O'Sullivan speaks to the press, and refuses to attend the regular private player meetings held by WST.
"He's definitely on par with Federer or Tiger - you can't tell me they're better at their sports than Ronnie is at snooker," O'Brien points out. "Mozart, Van Gogh - pick the bar of brilliance, greatness, genius and he is that.
"But you could also say that Federer and Tiger have been better ambassadors for their games. If Ronnie has a gripe, go through the right channels. Speak up if you're not happy, by all means.
"He might have three or four really good points but he ends up making eight or nine, some of which aren't necessarily factually based. Everyone listens to him so he has to be bang on with his facts.
"I'm doubtful that he would have earned as much money if it wasn't for snooker," O'Brien adds.
"But we are lucky to have him in the game because he's such a big draw. He's the one player who, for people who aren't particularly interested in snooker, they will watch O'Sullivan.
"To whom much is given, much is expected. Obviously he hasn't been given it; he's earned it, he's put the work in and gone out and won it.
"But you'd love to see him better use that platform that he has for the real good of the game. If he has issues, by all means challenge World Snooker. The game can be better run. Go through them at those meetings.
"But since he's been a pro we've had it far, far worse. And if Covid didn't happen, we'd be flying.
"I've always got on very well with him. When I first went over to the club in Ilford I practised with him a lot. I stayed in his house. We have good chats, particularly about our running.
"I've a lot of time for him. It's criminal that he's never won Sports Personality of the Year in the UK.
"But I don't think he's always used his platfrom as wisely as he could have, or should have."
