Now, I suppose some people out there are still scratching their heads over Burnley’s appointment of Brian Laws and I must admit I was a tad taken aback. Anyone without a knowledge of the game outside of the Premiership, and there are plenty of those fans in England, never mind outside the U.K., would be wondering where on earth he’s come from.

Yes, it is a bit of a left field choice, but Burnley’s board have long admired Laws’ qualities as a manager and at the third attempt to sign him, they have got their man. Burnley went for Laws before they appointed Steve Cotterill back in 2004 and again in 2007 before going for Owen Coyle. It seems a spiritual affair too, as Laws’ playing career started at Burnley, who spotted him playing for the legendary North East junior team, Wallsend Boys club.

Most of the surprise seems to be based on the fact that Laws was until two weeks ago, manager of Sheffield Wednesday. Now a quick look at the Championship League table will tell you all you need to know about why some people are shocked he’s landed at Turf Moor. Yet I don’t think that paints the full picture of his abilities and the achievements that he had whilst managing Scunthorpe should not be underestimated. Not least being sacked for 3 weeks before being re-instated back in 2004.

He achieved miracles on a shoestring whilst he was at Glanford Park and rightly earned the chance to have a crack at trying to deal with the poisoned chalice that Sheffield Wednesday now offer. 13 managers since 1st January 2000, including 5 caretakers, tells you all you need to know about a club with ideas very much above its station. In fact, quite a lot of people had a lot of sympathy for Laws when he was shown the door at Hillsborough, because they were aware of the financial constraints that he has had to work under, tallied with with an over demanding level of expectation. Leeds United they are not.

Yet it is that same ability to work within tightly controlled budgets that probably gave him the nod to take control at Turf Moor and as an ex-player he will know all about the history and pride that Burnley fans have. Some people may be underwhelmed by the appointment and I was surprised when I saw that he’d been approached in the first place, but in the cold light of day I can completely see where Barry Kilby and the Burnley board are going here.

They haven’t gone down the depressing route of looking to a foriegn manager or an ex-player with loads of badges but no ability. Yes, he got sacked from Sheffield Wednesday, but as with Paul Hart, it’s not as obvious as things can be made out on the surface. No-one has succeeded at Wednesday since the early 1990′s and when he took over at Hillsborough in November 2006, the club were in danger of being relegated back to Division One.

Laws is a prudent, honest and no-nonsense manager who could be a great success at Burnley, don’t be too hasty to chastise him. Survival would mean everything to those Clarets fans and after all the upheaval in recent weeks, Laws can offer a smooth and straight talking style immediately. He served under Brian Clough as a player for 5 years during Forest last heady days of success and was always on the fringes of the England squad at the time.Now if he can survive a baptism of fire at Old Trafford and avoid hitting his star player in the face with a plate of chicken wings, he’ll do just fine.

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!

How long does he have left?

With Portugal on the verge of non-qualification for the World Cup in 2010, manager Carlos Queiroz is under extreme pressure and has the very real possibility of unemployment looming over him. Given this threat, and inevitability that this will occur, I ask you… How long before we see the Portuguese back in the Manchester United dugout alongside Sir Alex Ferguson?

With Portugal lying fourth in their World Cup qualifying group with only ten points from seven matches. Going into the qualification group as favourites, the current state of affairs comes as a real shock for the Euro 2008 quarter-finalists.

Denmark have more or less qualified for the World Cup with Hungary and Sweden in equally strong positions. It was imperative the Portuguese overcame Hungary in the last match, but even still, the jobcentre still looms large for Queiroz.

With Portugal lying third in Group A, level on points with fourth placed Hungary and two points behind Sweden who lie second. With two games remaining Portugal face Hungary and Malta, both in Portugal, nothing less than six points from these games will do. But Sweden do have a relatively straightforward fixture with Albania, before which, they play Denmark, a game that will decide the fate of Carlos.

Queiroz therefore may be looking for new employment sooner rather than later and the Old Trafford bench is a familiar environment, one where he has had success in the past as well.

During his first reign sat beside Ferguson for only one year but managed to help the Old Trafford side win the Premier League title on season 02/03, before being poached by Real Madrid. It was after an unsuccessful year in Madrid that he was brought back to Old Trafford by Ferguson to begin an extremely successful four-year reign as assistant manager.

As a number one, Queiroz is terrible, making mistake after mistake. He is also accountable for Portugal’s failure to qualify for Euro ’92 and after taking over a very talented Sporting Lisbon team, led them to three seasons of failure and was promptly dismissed. After his first stint at Old Trafford, Real Madrid offered him a dream job, one that he could not turn down, and one that was a veritable disaster.

Sir Alex Ferguson welcomed the failed coach back to Old Trafford as his number two in July 2004 and so began a fruitful relationship. A number of trophies became housed at Old Trafford, including the 2008 Champions League trophy. Queiroz was seen as instrumental in United’s success, introducing new training methods and tactical plans that underpinned the Manchester United side of a few years back.

He also has an eye for talent spotting; he famously discovered Portugal’s so-called ‘Golden Generation’ and also had a hand in bringing Cristiano Ronaldo to Old Trafford. But these positives have not transpired into the managerial stage and who knows, he may be back sharing a glass or two of Chianti with Sir Alex before the year is out.

I was so tempted to ape the feel of the misleading headline that first brought this story to my attention: “John Barnes set for Rovers Role”. He’s taking over Blackburn? I thought. Ah… (after clicking on the link) …Tranmere Rovers.

So when it came time for my own sensationalist slant on things, how about: John Barnes To Return To Liverpool!

No. I couldn’t do that to you. I’ll put Merseyside and a question mark in the title just to be safe.

Still, there is a sentimental tingling attached to the idea of the former Merseyside hero returning to the Liverpool area, yes?

Tranmere sacked manager Ronnie Moore on Friday. Moore failed to deliver the club to the play-offs and a chance at promotion to the Championship, but more importantly, perhaps, was the 19% drop in attendance. This was cited as the club’s desire for “a new direction.”

Meanwhile, Barnes’s seven month contract was up as manager of the Jamaican National Team. Originally told it would be renewed, Barnes has expressed dissapointment he won’t be there to bring Jamaica to the Gold Cup in July.

So now Barnes is supposedly in “talks” with Tranmere about Moore’s vacated post. Tranmere have also expressed interest in two other former Liverpool FC players taking the role: Jason McAteer and Paul Ince. Like Moore, McAteer also once played for Tranmere. Two former Liverpool legends have managed Tranmere in the past: Roy Yeats and John Aldridge.

Barnes has not managed a club side since his brief stint in charge of Celtic. Like his Jamaica job, his reign at Celtic only lasted seven months. The Glascow side sacked him after Inverness Caldonian upset them out of the Scottish Cup. Criticisms then that Barnes style clashed with the team have been reiterrated recently by former Celtic defender Alan Stubbs.

But in the above linked BBC article from 2000, there is also a telling quote from former Celtic director Brian Dempsey:

“Celtic is a difficult club for anyone to either play at or be involved with in management at any level.

“As Mr Barnes put it at his press conference, to ‘cut his teeth’ into management at Celtic was an almost impossible task from the beginning.”

Perhaps Tranmere would be a better arena for Mr Barnes to make a new go of managing at the club level. The pressure won’t be the same as at Glascow, but he would have the challenges of bringing the club to the next set of playoffs (or better) as well as raising attendence.

It would be nice to see Barnes do well. If Celtic was too intense a place to “cut his teeth”, winning the Caribbean Cup with Jamaica may have been too easy. It’s been suggested that since Barnes had a “vastly superior squad” compared to his regional counterparts, the Caribbean Cup was not a “true test” of his abilities.

If he gets the job, Barnes should approach Tranmere (and Tranmere should approach Barnes) as a fresh beginning. Neither should let his failure with Celtic or his success with Jamaica set an unfair standard in either direction.

A League One side that finished just below the playoffs is a reasonable place to test Barnes’s abilities. If he can bring them success and if he can at least put bodies in seats with quality football, we will finally know that Barnes has the tools to be a good manager.

Paul Ince sacked by Blackburn. Kevin Keegan pushed out of Newcastle. Roy Keane frustrated by Sunderland. Ince was an outright firing after Blackburn only registered 3 wins in 17 matches. Keegan technically resigned, but has made allegations that the club forced him out. Roy Keane left Sunderland after failing to agree on contract negotiations.

Poor form dogged each of these sides as club and manager parted ways. Newcastle sit within the relegation zone. Blackburn and Sunderland are fighting to remain clear of it. Are clubs too quick to part ways with the men who steer them?

We enter each season knowing the drop of the ax is inevitable. The sack is so entrenched in football culture, predictions are made and odds are given. We make a game of it: who will go first? Along with Ince, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Tony Adams, Juande Ramos and Alan Curbishly all got the sack this season. More than a third of the Premier League’s managers parted ways with their clubs. (Harry Redknapp also left Portsmouth for Spurs, but seemed to be for the lure of big money.)

The lack of tenacity in club/manager relations shows many boards are unwilling to give managers the time to work through a bad period. True, Ince’s record was beyond poor, but he’d never managed a top flight club before. Six months is a short amount of time to garner enough experience to excel. And Blackburn are still in the danger zone despite his departure.

Keane saved Sunderland from dropping down to League One and then delivered them back to the Premier League. I don’t know what Keane’s contract demands were or how much his famous temper factored into it, but it seems like Sunderland would have done well to fight harder to keep him in place. Keane’s leadership combined with the savy he showed in going after players did wonders for not only bringing Sunderland back to the top flight, but keeping them above the drop last year.

Before Newcastle parted ways with Keegan, Sam Allardyce had been sacked after 24 matches. Keegan managed the Magpies for eight months. Now, Alan Shearer takes over for Joe Kinnear (whose heart surgery put him out for the remainder of the season). At 31 points with only four matches left, finally coaxing in Shearer (many Newcastle supporters have long hoped he’d take charge) may be too late, and Newcastles unwillingness in recent times to give any one manager a long-term chance to lift the club will probably mean they are going down. And if they continue their long tradition of spending most of their money on attackers and very little of it on defenders, it will be quite a task for them to come back up.

While some managerial replacements prove to be positive (Spurs have clearly been playing better under Redknapp and West Ham have improved under Zola), the struggles of Blackburn, Sunderland and especially Newcastle show that the desparate shift in management provide no guarantee that a club’s fortune will reverse. The fates of these clubs might not hang in doubt if the managers had been encouraged to stay on and work through the club’s problems. Sir Alex Ferguson had his struggles in his first few years of managing United before he started winning titles. He was allowed the time to develop the club into a winning side. An endeavor that takes longer than six months.