Aye, that's a fair point, Pat.

Ashley is the only reason any of those chancers got anywhere near our club. Bruce is the worst of the lot but the most ridiculous one was Kinnear-that fatso ever thought he would work out shows how little he knows.

And the ridiculous thing is, with a bit more of a forward-thinking attitude, we could have had someone who was, as far as the Prem is concerned, a relative unknown. Look at Southampton with Pochettino or Leeds with Bielsa or Wolves with Espirito-Santo-any of those would have transformed our club-even Potter at Brighton.

Having said that, not only does our owner have no imagination, if he had managed to secure their services, he'd have tied both their hands behind their backs with his transfer policy and lack of investment in the infrastructure, Academy, etc so it would more than likely have ended in tears anyway.

At the moment, anyone would be better than Bruce (previous incumbents need not apply ) but if he does leave then it's absolutely pot luck who we'll get. You know when you walk past an empty shop unit and it's been stripped of everything that's of any value-but there's always the odd coat hanger or bent display rack or wobbly office chair that they couldn't be arsed to take? Our next manager will be the equivalent of that. We're not even looking in the bargain basement-we'll be walking round the Royal Quays outlet, peering in grubby windows of abandonded shops to see what's been left over.

And it'll be ever thus until we get a new owner.