Managerial Merry Go Round

The least surprising news of the week is Graeme Souness departure from Newcastle today. Given the amount of money invested (and seemingly for excessive valuations), Souness can hardly complain as their league form since he took charge has been slightly less than impressive. Some of the signings on paper seem to be good and he has been unfortunate with injuries to those players. For example, the losses of Owen and Luque would have had a detrimental effect on all bar Chelsea. That said, the prices he had paid to secure Owen and Boumsong were incredible given their transfer values the previous year, £8m and zero respectively. Although they were impacted by contract status at their previous clubs, even in a bullish transfer market it is astounding that he spent £25m on these two players. Until of course, you look at the clubs involved. No doubt some will wonder whether or not Real Madrid were looking to recoup some of the fee they paid for the injury-prone Woodgate and Rangers could not have possibly been looking to get one over on a former employee. No, thought not.

From the beginning, he was in a position where he could not win. Replacing Sir Robby Bobson was never going to be easy but even the announcement of Souness as manager brought forth a stream of dissension from the supporters and very little cheer. His track record prior to joining Newcastle was not one that would have inspired confidence in their supporters. A limited success at Anfield ended after a PR disaster. His subsequent roles at Benfica and Southampton were insipid, with the Portuguese being particularly unhappy at his British imports. Perhaps the Newcastle Board were blinded by his success in the early days at Rangers where he was able to spend a small fortune in an uncompetitive League and produce a team of Champions.

One of the curious aspects is the timing of his dismissal. The FA having met today will no doubt be producing their shortlist and no doubt be interviewing Curbishley and Allardyce for the soon to be vacant England role. Unless they are ruled out of contention for the England job pretty quickly, it is hard to see why they would be interested in Newcastle - unless of course, they have a get out clause in their contracts - and that being the case, why Newcastle would even consider signing a Manager who could leave within 3 months. Even by Freddie Shephards cack-handed PR style, that would be a disaster. Unless of course they have already agreed terms with Eriksson to co-manage and groom Shearer to take over when he eventually retires. This is plausible in that the Swede has made it clear he would like to stay in England and Shearer would need to be seen to have gained some experience before the Newcastle public fully accepted him as manager in his own right.

In which case, should the FA appoint their manager perhaps he ought to take charge before the World Cup and lead England to glory. Or a glorious failure. That would require a manager who is currently unemployed to take charge. Step forward Graeme Souness - all the right credentials, i.e. European experience, managed a big club - which would provide a nice snug result for all parties. So remember where you read it first - SOUNESS FOR ENGLAND...

The Brucey Bonus Tune for today is from the Bootleg album: Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg, Combat Rock Outtakes, Vol. 3

The Clash - The Beautiful People Are Ugly Too