Thank goodness for Curbs and Murray....

During a week when the enlightened Freddy Shepherd shamefully sacks a fine manager woefully let down by a group of arrogant young players, and then recruits an average manager who thinks nothing of resigning in the blink of an eye, it makes you thankful for Curbs and Richard Murray whom we could easily take for granted.

I had secretly hoped that Newcastle would take on Terry Venables....it would have led me to conclude that a divine being was serving to punish the club for their treatment of Robson. How this man's name continues to crop up on managerial shortlists amazes me. He had a modicum of success at Barcelona (where failure is near impossible such is the size of the club), then won the FA Cup with Spurs but then proceeded to embark on a series of failed ventures (and I don't exclude his Euro 1996 record where we won just two games out of five [excluding penalties] and frankly a semi-final berth was the least one should expect as the home team of just sixteen, playing all games at Wembley).

As for Graeme Souness, he seems to have managed to turn himself into a serious candidate despite being a laughing stock at Liverpool and achieving virtually nothing at Blackburn, flirting infact with relegation and leaving them in a tidy 19th position. Somehow his 'hardman' status seems to be strangely attractive to club Chairmen as if throwing a few teacups can override tactical deficiencies and a lack of man management skills (just ask Andy Cole).

In the meantime, genuinely high quality loyal managers such as Curbs go about their business without pomp or undue publicity, backed by supportive Chairmen, allowing the likes of Souness (and Bruce, McGhee, Venables, Reid etc. etc.) to climb onboard the managerial merry-go-round.