PeteRobbo

Nothing to do with left-wing philosophy, ( I don't think you really meant theology did you)? No, I only meant that, as Mark said, if it eventually comes to dismissals, then that will result in another very large post-managerial payoff and, given that Frank would certainly name Chelsea as his favourite club, then he might, if he were the unquestionably honourable man some take him to be, and if he privately felt that he had been a significant contributor to his own downfall, not hang out for a large severance package himself, since he clearly doesn’t need the money. There could also be an agreed, honourable, payoff package by the two parties of course. Just a thought and definitely nothing to do with theology! Where did you get that from?

If it does come to having to dismissing Frank and his team Mark, then given that Frank is very wealthy, ( practically 70 million I believe), then, given that he also has a reputation for being an honourable person, should he actually resign, rather than go down the well worn “I'm not a quitter” route, as a ruse to securing his pay-off? What d'ya think?

Yes I agree of course and certainly, academically he has a record which suggests intelligence for sure. He's also very articulate, as is Gary Neville. After I posted my reply to you I started musing on other examples of “surprising managerial failures”. Also from current punditry we have Alan Shearer, who has become a very good pundit on MOTD I'd say and was revered as a player by Geordies, but he did nothing in his, admittedly short tenure, as a manager. Roy Keane is now a pundit too. Had a hugely successful playing career but could’n manage a team at all it appeared. And then there's our own Rudd! An outstanding playing career all over Europe and certainly very intelligent, but yet another managerial car crash. Yes, there's quite a roll-call of dishonour with respect to ex-player, managerial failures. Maybe Frank will still come good, but past evidence runs counter to that somewhat.

This is an old chestnut Mark - “Frank Lampard is so intelligent” Is he? How do you know that and in what way is his intelligence manifested? Gary Neville comes across in his role as pundit as an intelligent and articulate bloke and, like Frank, he had a very high level career as a player. So you might have thought therefore that he would have the makings of a successful manager. But what do you know? He took a job and crashed and burned in record time. Might have been a record for one of the earliest failures. Mind you, it was a very risky adventure from the outset I'd say - to take up your first appointment with a high profile foreign side in a league where he had not played himself before and where he didn’t speak the language. Frank, following just one season with a championship team came to the club which he knows best of all, working in a league where he'd been super successful as a player. But following a very creditable first season working with our young academy products, once he'd raised the stakes and spent lavishly on an array of well regarded foreign imports? Well that has become an entirely different scenario and he now looks in very unknown territory and seemingly has no answer to our problems. Being a head coach/manager at a very high level is a tall order I'd say. It calls for a mix of technical skills, ( tactical nous, player deployment, playing styles in all departments of a team etc), and “soft” skills, ( man management, player empathy, motivational skills and so on). It ain't easy and it's apparent that a stellar playing career and having a reputation for being intelligent because of a high score in an IQ test from way back are not that relevant at all.

Indeed! Ex-Wolves man. Was always a very reliable finisher for them in fact.

Excellent! Thanks Asva..

But that can not happen if there's a ready made alternative

I know one who can......

I'm still not sure about that.

Yep! He's the same every match. Trouble is that all of the others are the same too.

You've never seen us do that before Ugo?

Timo set off on a run at high speed there, but nobody saw him. We're not showing any urgency at all.

The fact that there's no crowd is just making it look all the more like this is a midweek practice match for Leicester.

I don't think there's any way back from here mate.Did you see the lack of marking on Leicester's number 2 just now? Ludicrous?

Quite so TVF