Put a pony on Roeder winning sack race
By Des Kelly, The Daily Mail, October 31st 2006
Stuart Pearce wants a 'sacking window' in which managers can only be handed their P45 at a prearranged date in the season.
It's a nice try, but an idea that has about as much chance of being adopted as his daughter's 'lucky' toy horse has of winning the Grand National.
Pearce even complains that speculation about a manager's position is 'easy journalism'.
He might have a point, but he is shooting at the wrong target. The real danger stems from a club board looking for an easy fix.
Up at Liverpool one director is busily blabbing to the media that Rafa Benitez is in trouble.
At West Ham, an insider is keeping everyone briefed on how many games Alan Pardew might have left.
While someone within Pearce's camp is counting down the number of matches he will be given to turn things around.
They are all equipped to emerge from their current plight, but only if their directors hold their nerve.
The one who has real reason to fear is Glenn Roeder.
He is employed by Newcastle United, a club with a dismal history of hiring and firing everyone except the men responsible for making these appointments in the first place.
Worse still, these same sack-happy directors have just posted annual losses of £12million.
The Newcastle Evening Chronicle regarded as the media mouthpiece of Freddy Shepherd, says that the chairman "has no plans to relieve Roeder of his duties at this moment in time", that time presumably being lunchtime.
But since Shepherd enjoys lining his pockets with Newcastle's cash, I'd advise the likeable Roeder to wait a while before mapping out his speech for the club Christmas party.
That's not easy journalism.
That's from the toy horse's mouth.
Shepherd Out.
Nufcmismanagement view:
Did anybody expect that Shepherd would get this appointment right? We certainly didn't, we knew about his track-record in this respect, he's a failure.