So it seems the end is drawing close for Rafa Benitez at Anfield, with reports all over the place pointing to the Liverpool owners offering Benitez £3 million to leave immediately. Quite what has happened to bring Liverpool lurching in to another crisis so soon after the season has ended is unsure, but for me, he’s been under pressure ever since he guaranteed the club would finish 4th back in January.

That at the time looked a long shot as Liverpool huffed and puffed there way through turgid performance after turgid performance. Even the most biased Liverpool fans were unsure if it was attainable but come the May 9th, the club had crashed from almost winning the Premiership in 2008-2009, to almost not qualifying for Europe in 12 months. No doubt it was all Sir Alex Ferguson or referee’s fault. At the moment the Daily Mirror are claiming he’s actually been sacked, most of the other stories are saying he’s been asked to leave.

Now, I’ll be honest, I simply didn’t think the club would see sense and try to get rid of him. I’m sick of the apologists blaming the board for Liverpool’s problems. It’s a phony war, it doesn’t cover the fact that Benitez has spent so badly, so consistently over the 6 years he’s been at Anfield. Yes, the board are culpable for some of the problems, but it doesn’t cover the fact he has sold 34 of the 77 players he has signed. Almost half, that is a frightening amount, that is probably the worst turn over of a manager at a club in the modern era.

The club are not in a position to sack him due to the financial situation, Gerrard and Torres are being linked with clubs, Mascherano wants to leave for family reasons, Benayoun is on the verge of joining Chelsea. Transfer targets have now had to be downgraded from Champions League players to Europe League targets. Yet for all that, people still go on about that night in Istanbul. 5 years ago. Or winning the F.A. Cup on penalties against a newly promoted West Ham side. 4 years ago.

This is a club on the edge of the precipice, financially and football wise. Last summer I wrote that Aston Villa had more chance of winning the Premiership than Liverpool and was roundly castigated by Reds fans who thought I meant Villa would win the league. I didn’t, I meant Aston Villa had more chance of winning the Premiership than Liverpool. As it turned out, they finished higher in the table but neither of them had a chance of troubling the top end of the table.I just thought Liverpool had no chance of winning the title.

This is a manager who sold Liverpool’s best prospect in years, Stephen Warnock to Blackburn and then replaced him with abysmal left back after abysmal left back. Warnock’s career has continued to blossom since his departure and is developing in to one of the leagues best left backs. This is a manager who spent the summer of 2008 trying to flog Xabi Alonso and then whined all summer 2009 when Alonso told him he wanted to leave. Then replaced him with an injury prone midfielder who he then seemed to fall out with. Outstanding.

The only people I imagine who will be sad to see Benitez go are anyone who supports anyone else in the top eight. Of course there will be plenty of Liverpool fans, still blinded by the amazing comeback in 2005, unable to see just how far the club have fallen since that night who will be distraught. I don’t understand it. If Liverpool had won the league in 2008-2009, for me they would have been the worst Premiership title winners since the league started in 1992 and probably the worst league winners in nearly 30 years since Villa won it in 1981.

I won’t fall into this trap of speculating who’ll replace him, but I don’t doubt CV’s will be whizzing themselves to Anfield as we speak. I doubt anyone else, apart from Graeme Souness, could make a worse job of it than Benitez has the last 4 seasons, 2008-09′s second place excluded. The added bonus is the club have Kenny Dalglish there to steady the ship in the current climate and that alone will make sure the club will move onwards away from Benitez’s dire tactics and referee baiting.

Leave me your comments below and you can always find me on http://twitter.com/paulbestall

All great relationships come to an end, the natural course having run as far as it can. Sometimes they start passionately and brightly and quickly burn away to nothingness. Sometimes, they are a slowly burning and taut affair that consumes all within them in a supernova of passion oblivious to all around them. Occasionally, despite saying the opposite, things simply aren’t working. The public face presents a lie, when everything behind the scenes falls apart.

Of course, finishing 7th is no insult and 6th is not out of the question but this is Liverpool. European Champions on 5 occasions, runners up twice. League Champions 18 times and runners up on 12 other occasions. The most decorated club in English League history can end up qualifying for the Europa League because Portsmouth are not allowed to enter. Is it good enough to be surviving on scraps thrown by clubs imploding financially? Simply put, no it isn’t.

I saw Benitez’s post match comments on Sunday and was astounded. You can’t position yourself as a champions of the fans and then refuse to commit yourself to confirming whether you intend to be at the club next season. Benitez owes that to the Anfield faithful at the very least. They have backed him 100% throughout his consistent battles with the owners and the boardroom and now he throws it back in their faces. I think most fans of other clubs would be hard pressed to have kept the patience with a manager like the Liverpool fans have with Rafa Benitez.

Of course, his supporters will always point to the 2005 Champions League final victory and to a lesser extent, the F.A. Cup victory the following season over West Ham United. Last season saw Liverpool come within a whisker of winning the title but ultimately missed out due to the points dropped against “lesser” sides. The beginning of the season saw them lose as many leagues games in 8 days as all of last year. Complaints about Real Madrid tapping up Xabi Alonso were treated with the contempt they deserved after Benitez had spent most of the summer of 2008 trying to flog him.

He claims the club needs 4 or 5 great players, unlike the majority of the 77 he’s signed. With the exception of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, every single player at Liverpool is a Benitez signing. Incredibly, of the 77 players he’s signed, 30 of them have been sold on. His supporters claim the board have tied his hands in regards to the money he’s had to spend, but looking at his transfer record, honestly, can you blame them? A scatter gun transfer policy that currently sees Liverpool using Mascherano as a right back and a £7 million left back in the reserves. A depth of striking talent after Torres that a Championship club would be embarrassed to have at its disposal.

This refusal to commit himself to Liverpool next season surely treats the fans like idiots. He has more support from them and delivered probably less than any Liverpool manager since Graeme Souness’ dreadful tenure in the early nineties. He eventually fell on his sword and resigned after they were beaten by Bristol City at home in the F.A.Cup in January 1994.Yet the 3 seasons he’d spent there were littered with dreadful signings, arguments and badly judged media interviews, such as with the Sun newspaper on the 3rd anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. Yet even he won the F.A. Cup in 1992.

Souness finished 6th, 6th and 8th and the club were at the weakest they’d ever been in the modern era. Liverpool have finished outside the top 6 twice in the last 20 years and only 4 times in the 47 seasons they spent in the top flight since winning promotion back to the top division in 1962. Of course, they may still finish 6th but that’ not Benitez’s weakness for me, it’s his refusal to treat his supporters with the respect they deserve after all the support they’ve given him and tell them if he’s staying.

Perhaps of course, he’s playing the protection card, asking the board for the moon and then quitting when they quite rightly tell him to get stuffed. Only then will he consider the offer from Juventus that is on the table and has been for weeks. Added to this the fact that he absurdly claims he’s trying to meet up with the new chairman after canceling two scheduled meetings in the last fortnight weakens his position even further.

Liverpool’s fans deserve better, the club deserve better and no-one is happy. Rafa looks fed up and coming from a family of Liverpool fans, they’re fed up. The relationship has run its course and if Rafa Benitez really cared about Liverpool he’d do the right thing and quit. When you get to a point in a season where you want your team to lose to stop a rival club winning the title, I think that’s all you need to say and that’s a fact Rafa. It can only get worse from here.

So it’s official then, Owen Coyle will be the new manager of Bolton Wanderers and Burnley now have to find the right man to replace him as they look to continue the good work this season has produced. It is crucial that the chairman, Barry Kilby, makes the right decision in who to appoint as Coyle’s successor at Turf Moor.

Without wanting to state the obvious, it is paramount to Burnley’s continued success this season that the right man is given the job. That means the chairman has to avoid being star struck when the same old names come calling for the vacancy. Get it right and Burnley’s home form should see them stay up. Make the wrong decision and the club could spiral to the foot of the table in weeks.

Whilst Kilby should be rightly lauded for appointing Coyle in the first place, I don’t think anyone could have predicted just how much of an effect he would have on the sleeping giant. Stabilising the club by keeping them in the Championship and slowly building, improving the side year on year would have been a wonderful achievement. He surpassed all that when they won the play off final with their highest finish to a season since 1976.

Yet, you only have to look back to the mid nineties to see the age old disease that afflicts certain chairman. They get star struck and with the tenures of Adrian Heath and Chris Waddle still in the minds of Burnley fans, the last thing the club needs is a ex-footballer who thinks he can manage in the Premiership. They need someone who knows the demands of Premiership football and what the club means to the fans. It is not an easy decision for the club to make but they have to keep their eye on the prize.

It also means avoiding such arch self publicists as Graham Souness, Ruud Guillit, Bryan Robson and Gianluca Vialli. Men who’s reputations are fanned by the hero worship dished out to them as pundits on Sky Sports. Ignore their failings as managers, they’ve won countless trophies as players, men such as Tony Cottee who took over a Barnet side flying high only to completely destroy them in less than 5 months. Star struck chairman should be banned.

So I had a look on the League Managers Association Website earlier, to see who was available on their list. Oddly, Souness, Vialli and Guillit are still touting their wares, but a couple of oddities appeared. Burnley’s two previous managers before Coyle, the overrated Steve Cotterill and the universally detested Stan Ternent are still on there.  In fact most of the list reads as a who not to give the job too, with John Barnes and Tony Adams still refusing to realise their limitations and the ever popular Gary Megson available if you want to alienate your entire fan base.

Yet there are some stand out candidates, firstly Alan Curbishley is there, as is Mark Hughes and Steve Coppell. Former Scotland manager George Burley and  Paul Jewell are still available. For me, those are the 5 top options of unemployed managers that the LMA are offering. Curbishley wouldn’t probably want to move so far North and probably Coppell is wrestling with the idea of returning to Reading no doubt.

It may be too soon for Mark Hughes to return to the game so quickly after his ignomious exit from Manchester City which leaves Burley and Jewell. Burley proved at Ipswich that he could work on a tight budget, play effective and attractive football and earn promotion whilst at Ipswich. What he has against him is his failure to deal with bigger name players and keep sides in the Premiership. Jewell also has proved an ability to make a purse out of a sows ear, as his spells at Bradford City and Wigan Athletic showed.

Jewell though is still tainted by his awful spell at Derby County and Burley proved in his third Premiership season with Ipswich and during his time as Scotland manager, he just can’t handle big name players. He was also tainted with a torrid spell at Pride Park, which begs the question, what happens to managers at Derby County?? So would going after a manager currently employed be the answer?

Looking outside the Premiership though only seems to point to one candidate who could cope with the job and the pressure of Premier League football. He’s managed an international side and took a team from non league to the cusp of promotion to the Championship. He then took over another sleeping giant and took them up before almost taking them to the Premiership in 2008. That man is Gary Johnson at Bristol City and I believe he’s the only man out there for the job at Burnley.

Now, don’t laugh but I honestly feel he’d be perfect for the job and would keep Burnley up. The only downside is that potentially, Bristol City are a bigger club, with a larger fan base. This season, they’re averaging 14,553 fans a game, whilst Burnley are almost at capacity with 20,344. Promotion for Bristol City would be a massive boost for the area, and with plans to move the club to a 30,000 seater stadium by 2011, with option to increase it to 42,000, would Johnson give all that up for a crack at the Premiership? It’d be a tough ask, but if they could get him, then they should bite his hand off. Just don’t give it to one of the usual suspects, it’d be curtains for Burnley.

Well it certainly sounds like Owen Coyle will be moving the 25 or so miles to Bolton Wanderers to replace the sacked Gary Megson. After being given permission to talk to the Trotters, Coyle looks set to  become the manager of a club he served so well for two years between 1993 and 1995. By all accounts, it’s a done deal and Burnley will begin to look at who they will need to replace the excellent work that Coyle has started at Turf Moor.

Phil Gartside, the Bolton chairman has certainly acted quickly to replace Megson, but their are two things about this potential appointment I can’t get my head around. Firstly, people are saying he has more of an emotional attachment to Bolton than Burnley and secondly, why on earth is Burnley’s chairman Barry Kilby allowing Coyle to talk to them?

The second point perplexes far more than the first. Why has Kilby allowed Coyle to talk to Bolton so easily? For all the criticism of football players agitating for moves, football managers it seems can simply walk away from a contract for nominal fees. Coyle signed a contract extension in the summer after turning down Celtic that tied him down to Turf Moor until June 2013. Now an offer from Bolton Wanderers is more appealing than talking over Celtic?

Now no-one can tell me that the Bolton Wanderers job is anywhere near the level of being in charge of Celtic. It’s a non-starter without question especially right now. Burnley are two points ahead, although having played two games more than Bolton and Wanderers travel to the Emirates on Wednesday night for one of their games in hand.

Burnley fans are rightly scratching their heads thinking what on earth is going on and I can understand their confusion. Why has Kilby not put his foot down and simply pointed out to Coyle the 3 years left on his contract. Or is Bolton’s offer simply too good for Kilby to turn down? Yet for all the money that may be on the table from Bolton to take Coyle, who on earth could replace him?

The first point that I mentioned, the much vaunted emotional attachment, doesn’t add up either. As a player, Coyle played 74 games for Bolton and as of Saturday, he has managed Burnley for 113 games. So how can he have such an attachment that makes Bolton a more attractive prospect than Celtic or staying at Burnley? It’s something that I just can’t understand, which seems to echo the feelings of the majority of Clarets fan.

To be honest, a move to Bolton is more of a sideways move right now than a move up the managerial ladder. Bolton, since Allardyce left have drifted along in the lower echelons of the Premier League, whilst Burnley have been on an upward trajectory ever since Coyle landed. All the pre-season predictions, except for one idiot, pointed to Burnley being cannon fodder.

Yes, their away form has been abysmal, but it smacks of naivety more than a lack of ability. On Saturday, they were being tipped as a team that could be embarrassed by lower league opposition in the F.A. Cup, but in the end, the comfortably dealt with M.K. Dons. They’ve impressed many people this season and good luck to them. Ironically, it was Coyle’s behavior after that game that set tongues wagging.

By claiming he couldn’t go the the post match press conference as he needed to catch a flight to Scotland immediately after the game, people thought fair enough. Unfortunately, Coyle was then caught out by still being at Stadium M.K. an hour later. It was then that questions began to be asked and since then, no-one has become any the wiser as to what on earth is happening. Just a word of advice for Mr Kilby, whatever you do, don’t give Graeme Souness the job!

For every Ronaldo, there’s a Shevchenko. Sometimes, great reputations come at a great cost yet fail to deliver. Shevchenko is a great player to start with. Feared throughout Europe, his performances for Dynamo Kiev and A.C. Milan saw him become one of the most lethal strikers in the world. Once he arrived at Stamford Bridge, his reputation began to fall apart.

Yet these things happen. Sometimes, for a variety of reasons, some players cannot settle. Yet others flourish when they were expected to fail. Now we look at some of the worst signings in the last ten years and ask ourselves, did Juan Sebastian Veron really cost £43 million for English clubs alone!!

Well over the years, especially as the Premiership’s international appeal has grown, we now find ourselves in a situation were probably as case can be made for a large chunk of the best players in the world currently ply their trade in England. From Rooney to Torres, Essien to Mascherano, every team offers us a plethora of international flavour. Now let’s cast our eyes over some of my selections for the worst signings this decade in no particular order.

1. Juan Sebastian Veron £43.6 million

Now Veron’s failure to cope with the Premiership is something I still can’t get to grips with. His international pedigree was assured, he’d pulled the strings for Lazio and Parma during a 5 year spell in Italy, he was a top player. The failure of the Little Witch to adapt to the Premiership still astounds me. Manchester United paid £28.1 million for him, but off loaded him 2 years later to Chelsea, were he continued to under-perform. A return to Italy at Inter Milan never saw him recapture his form and he has now returned to Argentinian football.

2. Andrey Shevchenko £30.8 million

As I’ve mentioned earlier, a striker with one of the most feared reputations in Europe caused Chelsea to change their system and lose their way a little under Jose Mourinho. Rumours abound that the Special One never wanted him at Stamford Bridge but since he joined Chelsea, his career has taken a nose dive. Even a return to A.C. Milan couldn’t recapture his glory days and he has now returned to Kiev. It was like watching a different player when he was at Chelsea, he just couldn’t cope with the game.

3. Sergei Rebrov £11 million

Oddly, Shevchenko’s strike partner failed to adapt to the English game also, but his refusal to accept black players as team mates meant that he was always going to struggle. Perhaps a little more digging in to his personal life would have avoided an £11 million mistake for Tottenham Hotspur in 2000.  Made a return to publicity when Spurs signed Roman Pavlychenko, warning him about the amount of “Non-whites” in the Tottenham area. A thoroughly horrible man, the Premiership is better for his absence.

4. Fernando Morientes £6.5 million

Another striker with a fearsome reputation who looked as if he’d been kidnapped and replaced by a stand in when he joined Liverpool in January 2005. It was especially strange as the season before, he’d had a marvelous campaign in the Champions League with Monaco and a solid reputation forged for Real Madrid and Spain. He just never got going at Anfield and returned to Spain after just 18 months.

5. David Bentley £15 million

Bentley had forged an excellent reputation under Mark Hughes at Blackburn Rovers but his spell at Tottenham has seen him under perform constantly. That goal against Arsenal was expected to be the catalyst but Aaron Lennon’s continued excellent form has seen him become a peripheral player at his beloved Tottenham. It’s simply not worked for him and the problem is no one can work out why.

6. Jean Alain Boumsong £8.2 million

This transfer still makes me laugh, as it was a ludicrous amount of money for a centre half who struggled to cope with Scottish football during his spell at Rangers. Yet, if you want someone to pay over the odds, who better than Graeme Souness to come to your rescue. Never coped while he was at St James’ Park, he was moved on to Juventus and struggled in Serie B before joining Lyon.

7. Albert Luque £9.5 million

Another one of Souness’ signings during his awful spell as Newcastle manager, Luque came highly rated but never saw his career take off at all in the North East. He’d had three excellent seasons at Deportivo but since his two year hell at Newcastle his career has collapsed. Another dreadful Souness signing that never recovered to show his early potential.

8. Bosko Balaban £6 million

Was highly rated when John Gregory signed him for Aston Villa but in his 30 month spell he never started a game or scored a goal. The long running joke amongst Villa fans was that they’d actually signed the wrong player but he was signed as a goal getting striker. On leaving Villa he continued to score goals but will always be remembered for the goalless spell at Villa Park.

9. Steve Marlet £11.5 million

The signing that brought the end to Jean Tigana’s reign as Fulham manager and caused a legal battle with the chairman of Fulham, Marlet was an unmitigated disaster. 11 goals in 4 years says it all and he is currently without a club. Though how he was ever valued at £11.5 million after scoring just 13 goals in 2 seasons at Lyon still mystifies me.

10. Robbie Keane £20 million

Poor old Robbie Keane thought he’d gone to heaven when Spurs grudgingly accepted a hefty bid for the Liverpool supporting Irishman. Yet, unbeknown to Keane, Benitez didn’t want him and he became a pawn in an internal battle between Rick Parry and Rafa Benitez. 6 months later he was on his way back to White Hart Lane for the remainder of the fee that Liverpool owed Spurs, so effectively the Reds paid £8 million for a 6 month loan deal. Has never looked the same player since he returned either.

11. Francis Jeffers £8 million

Arsene Wengers most expensive mistake, Jeffers was supposedly the fox in the box the Gunners needed as the long term replacement for Ian Wright. Yet Jeffers’ attitude had caused him to be gladly sold by Everton and his career has seen him fall down the leagues, failing to score or stay fit for than a month a time. A shining example of wasted potential, he scored on his England debut in 2001 and it was all down hill from there. Is frighteningly still 28, currently injured at Sheffield Wednesday.

So, any thoughts on who you feel was the worst Premiership signing of the last 10 years? Please leave your comments below.

While having a drink at a local coffee shop Wednesday evening with Kartik Krishnaiyer, the topic of Graeme Souness came up and what an abysmal football manager he was especially at Newcastle. It got me thinking, though, that just as footballers retire from playing, football managers should be put out to pasture too when they’re obviously inept or past their prime.

So, without further ado, here are the top 7 football managers who have been involved in the English game that should be put out to pasture:

1. Graeme Souness: Souney is a perfect example of someone who is a much better pundit than football manager. With his analysis on RTE, he’s decisive, critical and blunt. As a football manager, he was often making excuses or silly transfer moves such as when he got rid of Deco and replaced him with Mark Pembridge.
2. David O’Leary: Whenever a manager vacancy happens, O’Leary is usually the first name that the press mentions as a possible contender for the job. However, in recent years, he’s been overlooked time and time again. And for good reason. The former Aston Villa manager did superbly at Leeds United, but his record at Villa was less than admirable eventually resulting in a player revolt against then Villa chairman Doug Ellis by his own players in 2006.
3. Tony Adams: The former Arsenal defender is another example of a genius of a football player who was awful as a manager. Even as an assistant manager at Portsmouth, under Harry Redknapp, Adams looked like a glum individual who was slumped on the bench and looking very disinterested. When he became manager of Pompey, his posture improved slightly but his tactics as manager were suspect and he lacked the motivation necessary to boost his players. His final game in charge was against Liverpool where his team were leading but eventually lost 3-2. In 16 games in charge, he only picked up 10 points. To make matters worse, he has now been tipped for the vacant New York Red Bulls manager position.
4. Iain Dowie: After Alan Curbishley left Charlton, Dowie was one of several clueless managers who tried to keep the ship afloat but failed miserably despite the fact that Dowie spent £11.2m on players during the summer of 2006. Under his leadership, Dowie won two Premier League games out of 12 and was sacked by November.
5. Stuart Pearce: Under Stuart Pearce, Manchester City were a joke team that had an awful club record of only scoring 10 league goals at home that entire season. Besides that poor record, Pearce supported Ben Thatcher after his horrific tackle against Pedro Mendes of Portsmouth. Pearce claimed that Thatcher mistimed the tackle, which is ridiculous. Add to that Pearce’s ineptitude as a manager. It’s surprising to think that he’s now the England under-21 manager.
6. Bryan Robson: One of the world’s best midfielders in his time ended up being a relative failure as a football manager. After each stint as a football manager, it became very apparent that he was pretty clueless as a gaffer at clubs such as Middlesbrough, Bradford, West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield United. His only saving grace was the final of the 2004/2005 season when West Brom performed the great escape by beating Portsmouth 2-0 and staying up in the Premier League.
7. Kevin Keegan: As much as I love Big Kev as a footballer and a childhood hero of mine, his days as a quality manager are long gone. He did well at Fulham and Newcastle United, but his track record at Manchester City was awful. As long as he did plenty of money to buy flash players, he was able to do well but his tactics seemed naive and definitely out of touch with reality despite his success at Newcastle United in the early 90s when they almost won the league.

Who’s missing from the list that deserves to be on it? Or which players do you think should not be included above? Click the comments link below and share your feedback.

Football is littered with players whose careers have been curtailed before their time, sometimes through off field excesses, sometimes by the wear and tear of top level football, but Matt Jansen is certainly one of those players who certainly had more than a bit of bad luck push him to the periphery of the game. Today, Jansen has spoken to BBC Radio Lancaster as he rejoins Blackburn Rovers to give it one final push to try and regain his status as a Premiership footballer.

Jansen had been a highly rated prospect when he started out at Carlisle United and famously turned down Manchester United as he felt he wouldn’t play regularly and joined Crystal Palace in 1998, before eventually joining Blackburn Rovers for £4.1 million the following year. Jansen quickly became a favourite of the Ewood Park faithful and in Graeme Souness first full season as manager fired 23 goals to help Blackburn return to the Premier League in the 2000-2001 season.

An impressive following season saw him score the first goal in the League Cup final and he was building a reputation as a skillful striker but it was all about to go horrible wrong for the likeable Cumbrian lad. That Summer, whilst on holiday, Jansen was involved in a near fatal motorbike crash in Rome. Spending 4 days in a coma, it became clear later that he had been close to death after the accident and it took 5 months of rehabilitation to get Jansen back on to the training pitch. It couldn’t have come at a worse time for the striker, who was on the fringes of the England squad and was a serious consideration to go to the 2002 World Cup. Once he returned to Blackburn,  he was loaned out to Coventry in 2003 and played 9 games in that spell before returning to Rovers to try and recapture his place amongst Graeme Souness’ squad. The 2003-2004 season saw him get back in to the match day squad but something wasn’t quite right, there was something missing and Blackburn, giving him a extended period of leave, sent him to the US to seek out a sports psychologist to try and remove the pressure that he was putting himself under. Once again, he returned to Blackburn and continued to try and break back into the squad.

Another 2 years of struggling with his performance saw him end up at Bolton Wanderers under Sam Allardyce but still Jansen couldn’t get back to the level he felt he needed to justify his inclusion and in 2006 he called it day after ending up having an unsuccessful trial with the New York Red Bulls. His career had now reached its nadir, but Allardyce invited him back to stay with Bolton in a bid to keep himself in shape, John Ward then allowed him to return to Carlisle to continue his fitness training before today’s announcement that he was training with Rovers and determined to try and get back.

Speaking on the radio, Jansen was positive, eager and sounding like he wants to be back amongst football. “I fell out of love with the game because things weren’t going my way and I needed time away from it and I thought that was it, After the accident I couldn’t live up to what I thought I was prior to the accident, I didn’t believe I was back to my best so the doubts and lack of confidence started creeping in. ” He finished the interview with his aim. “If you ask my ultimate ambition, it would be to wear that blue and white strip again.”

It’s one of those saddening stories that may have a happy ending for the striker who is still only just turned 31 and having seemingly lost everything he had, now wants to give it one more crack. Of course, no-one needs me to point out if he had gone to the World Cup, he would never have been involved in the accident, but Jansen never spoke of what ifs and maybes, simply looking forward to the opportunity to give it another go now his hunger for the game had returned. Anyone who has been through anything similar to the mishap which befell the lad will certainly appreciate that life can never be the same again but it can be as damn close as possible. It may not take a week, a month or even a year to feel mentally right, but one day you can wake up with a sense of determination and purpose and the cobwebs feel as if they’ve been blown away.

I always rated Jansen, as a person and player. He was one of the good guys, who took time out to sign autographs, stop for a chat and a photo with his adoring fans and I truly hope that this latest twist in his career sees him return to a game that he gave so much to.  Fingers crossed Matt, you deserve it and well done to Paul Ince and the coaching staff at Blackburn Rovers, I hope it pays off for all of them.