State of the nation....

These things always look obvious in hindsight but one thing is glaringly obvious: Bruce Rioch aside this board have never appointed anyone with any record of managerial success whatsoever. Isn't that a bit odd?

The Worthy replacement was a key decision, and to give such a massive job (in terms of expectation of 24,000 fans, turning ailing club around, getting senior players 'onside', using available transfer funds) to someone who had coached but never managed before (as he admitted himself last night) was a huge, ill-thought out gamble. Even if some of us didn't see it at the time.

You could say Roy Keane was, but he is a force of personality who instantly demands respect because of what he has achieved. Grant played for Celtic 10 years ago, and er, that's it.

Huckerby is behaving appallingly, but looking at it from his point of view, he wants to enjoy his football at this stage of his career, not be constantly told he is not standing exactly where he should be on the pitch.

When we appoint a new manager, it needs to be someone who has track record of getting teams out of this division and can command the respect of players by looking like he knows what he's doing. That means Warnock, Jewell, etc. That does not mean Dublin, Staunton, Coleman or indeed any up and coming manager from the lower leagues...

Posted By: Bob in France, Oct 9, 11:13:29