The Championship column December 27 2007
Trawling through last Sunday's newspapers, with their varied stories of footballers misdemeanours, it struck me as valid to ask just who in their right mind would want to be a football manager?
Who would want to risk their sanity trying to keep a squad of highly paid, highly sexed millionaires on the straight and narrow while, hopefully anyway, managing to win football matches?
It comes to something when a footballing luminary of the stature of Sir Bobby Robson feels moved to write in support of his great friend Sir Alex Ferguson in the Mail on Sunday, effectively saying that modern day players are out of control, and can no longer be disciplined. His point was that they are so highly paid and prized that they would merely be on their bikes to the next big payer if the old Glasgow hairdryer treament was applied in the wake of the more lurid headlines.
And, after a week when the question of the abuse that players and managers have to take from fans has been closely scritinised, there comes the news that the Cardiff City manager Dave Jones says he received death threats during Cardiff City's recent poor run of form.
In the space of six matches, Cardiff had lost four times when the worst of the abuse and threats began.
"The abuse I've had from certain quarters here is something I've not had to endure before," Jones said. "I was getting invitations to have a fight and you certainly don't expect death threats. You could say that sort of thing is part of football but I shouldn't have to put up with that. That's not what football is about.
"Fans are entitled to their views because they pay money to watch us - but sending abusive texts is something else. It doesn't bother me because I've been through worse in my life. But it has hurt my family and friends."
Death threats? Are these people who do these things completely mad? Oh, the beautiful game.
Add to that the fact that football managers have one of the least secure jobs going, albeit a well paid one. At point of writing, eight changes of managerial regime have been made in the Championship to add to the seven in the Premiership. In other words, since the beginning of the season, managers of our leading clubs have had roughly a one in three chance of being given the bullet.
So, amid the pre Christmas bad publicity for our sport, it was at least heartening to hear some voices from within football speaking sense, among them the (recent) ex Ipswich owner David Sheepshanks.
Asked about the seemingly worsening trend of managers being dismissed as soon as results go wrong, meaning promotion prospects dim or the likelihoood of relegation increases, he said that clubs who looked at continuity of employment often reaped the rewards.
Sheepshanks gave the example of his own club Ipswich Town, whom he said had only employed ten managers since the end of the second world war in 1945; a record of which he is justly proud and one which he fervently hopes the new Ipswich owners will continue. Is it any wonder then that Ipswich remains among the warmest and friendliest places to visit?
Jim Magilton, who is doing good things at Portman Road, may be one of those managers able to look at 2008 with optimism and with the security of not having to continually glance over his shoulder to see who might be about to plunge a metaphorical dagger between his shoulder blades, and so too Dave Jones at Cardiff.
Although Jones was shocked and disgusted, and rightly so, at some of the hurtful uacceptable criticism that came his way during Cardiff's poor run, he should be encouraged by the fact the Cardiff chairman Peter Ridsdale remained supportive, because you can bet Ridsdale would have had no shortage of 'advice' about how to solve Cardiff's bad run.
It may be a forlorn hope, but to all managers out there I wish a very Happy New Year.
John Rawling