Having come out from under the duvet, I'm beginning to try to make sense of the last few weeks. (Currently on Cephalonia, and I'll tell you what, people, this travelling around lark is great, but when the oldest love of your life is going through this sort of crisis, being out of internet contact for more than 10 minutes is scary. Excuse digression). As a few have pointed out, the time between everything going into meltdown and us ending up appointing a manager of some international standing is less than three weeks. Hmm. So how did this go then? LR: Well, not a bad result, Mauricio. United were better than us second half, but still, a good finish to our season, wasn't it? MP: Si, but a-now I want to speak to the Hotspurs - oh and Luke Shaw. He having a leetle chat with Ryan Giggs - this good, si? LR: Well damn me, Mauricio. That's a shock. What shall we do? Or was it? MP: (strangely now in impeccable English) Hey, Les. Highest points score. Unbeaten against United. Highest finish, and best goal difference. So where's the new contract? I have the watch and I'm ready to sign. LR: Sure. Just sign there. MP: But this is some sort of application for a job at a team called Tottingham or something. LR: That's right, Cortese puppet. Meet my friend Henk here. He's our new manager's interpreter. You can take David with you, if you want. So the question is, does anyone else wonder whether there was some sort of "night of the long knives"? Is anyone else suspicious about the speed with which RK was approached? Just a thought, and an esoteric one of course. We will never know - there is no 30 year rule on Football Clubs! - and it probably doesn't matter. But during a slow news time, while we await to see what the new Dutch broom is going to do, I'd be intrested to find out if anyone else has had similar thoughts. Of course if any of the moles know anything, I'd be even more interested. None of the above detracts from the point that I am now a much happier Saint than I was. Being shut up with me 24/7, my wife is delighted, even if she did say on first seeing RK in interview that he was "not as fit as Mauricio". I bet Les didn't factor this in!
The press conference after Cortese left tells you all you need to know, Poch was asked if he was going to stay and he said "we will review it in the summer". It was reported that he was offered an improved contract by the Board, but he was always going to leave when the first offer from a "bigger" club came along.
OK, I'm being paranoid but: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27887180 might seem to suggest that the club were already looking for the next manager.
Numerous sources confirmed that an improved contract was offered to him, prior to the end of the season. Adam Blackmore frequently said that the board made a mistake by not making this offer public, to put pressure on him, however I should think that the terms of the numerous contracts at hand prevented the club from doing so.
It does sound like the club constantly scout coaching staff as well as players. This sounds exactly like something Cortese would have put in place - if the "scouts" had found a much better manager than Poch was available then Cortese would have had no problem sacking Poch just as he sacked Adkins. There's no reason to believe Poch was forced out though.
We'll be fine now. Now, stop worrying and go and have a swim followed by an ice-cold glass of Dutch beer. Kefalonia is fantastic, wish I was there. Whereabouts are you?
Karpathos is a fabulous Greek island too. So is Barra in the Outer Hebrides though... even better beaches!
Now, if we're talking island beaches in the UK, Tresco in the Scillies is fab, or how about St. Ouen's on Jersey?
Never been to the Scilly Isles. Would love to go one day. I've just never got around to it. There are also one or two hidden Cornish beaches of note. They'll remain hidden, as far as passing on information is concerned. Kefalonia is wonderful, as is almost any Greek Island, to be fair. One of my dreams is to sell up, buy a boat, and live off there. Mind you, anywhere in the Mediterranean as well, would be great.
Here's a really radical thought; how about taking the board on face value and accepting what they say as being accurate? I think that Les Reed and RK have shown a straight bat in what they have said about the plan moving forward. I know some love a conspiracy theory but everything which has happened so far (Rickie is a special case) fits what they have said. Pochettino wanted the Spurs job and it may not have been purely about the money. One paper pointed out MPs association with the locality from which Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa came. We may never know but I don't think that it was due to not making him an offer.
That has always been my default stance. People occasionally suggest I might be gullible, but it does make life a lot simpler if one isn't always trying to double-think things. Sometimes, in fact most often, people are actually telling the truth as they see it.
