Peter Reid was a dire manager

a man whose reputation as a player, he was a very good player to his credit, carried him only so far. As his reputation faded it was matched only by his inarticulacy. (actually, is that a proper word, or am I being remarkably inarticulate by supposing that 'inarticulacy' is a word, surely phrasing it differently would be wiser- WAS MATCHED ONLY BY BEING AWESOMELY INARTICULATE. Just as well I am not doing a stint on Football Focus otherwise I would look a right gibbering idiot.

Anyway, Peter Reid is widely thought of as a crap manager.

Then there was Mick Mcarthy. He, like Reid, managed Sunderland. He, unlike Reid was not a great player. And Roy Keane had told him so to. 'you were a crap player and you're a crap manager', or words to that effect splattered with more excessive expletives. Which brings me to Keane. Who was an excellent player, like Reid, and a bad manager, like both Reid and Mcarthy, and had a beard more ridiculous than either of them. Actually the beard was not all that bad, but it was silly. Beards can only be worn gracefully by writers and left-wingers. Preferably both. Anyone else- from Richard Branson to Noel Edmonds, looks like a cock in a beard. I think Keane realised this, only he was too stressed, and too depressed, to shave it off. Either that or he decided Gerry Adams was some kind of fashion icon.

Gerry Adams of course can carry a beard- as he is a leftwinger. Oh, by the way, by left winger I mean those who, historically would have stood to the left Louis XVI in court, not those who grace the left of the football pitch and with pace and a touch of maverick genius get into good attacking positions. I've no idea if Gerry Adams, or che Guervara, or, Trotsky, were any good on the football pitch.

Perhaps only people who are pretty crap at sport get into politics. But then how would that explain the most awful of breeds- ex sportsmen, or women, who get into politics. David Icke is the only sportsmen who got into politics that I have any time for. And that is because he suffers (or suffered) from an attractive form of dreadful self-delusion. Like he internalised the plot of THEY LIVE...

Anyway, I digress. Roy Keane has gone. His managerial record is worse than both Reid's and Mcarthy's. But I reckon it is only a matter of time before someone gives him another chance to prove- in such high jest -dulce est playerium ab shit managerium. Or something.

Lovely to see you all by the way.