The Replacements

Last updated : 27 October 2005 By Keith Allman
What with the media trying to create some kind of self-fufilling prophesy - "if we mention Alain Perrin is going to get the sack enough times then it'll happen" - already thoughts have turned to the man, or indeed men, being lined up to fill his shoes. It does make me laugh somewhat that every week we get stories about "under pressure Alain Perrin", but under pressure from who? Oh yeah, the gutter rags!

Still, I'll save another newspaper rant for another day.

The supposed number one target is George Burley who has recently resigned from his job at Hearts. It was a weird decision since he'd taken them to the top of the Scottish Premier League and for once it looked like there could be a realistic challenger to the usual Celtic and Rangers dominance; however the doubters of this rumour will point to the fact that Burley quit after falling out with the Eastern European chairman who wanted to be more involved in the club. Sound familiar?

One thing related to ourselves that does seem to have been changed by Burley's departure is the position of Bobby Robson. On our search for a new Director of Football he's apparently high on the list, but with a free job up in Scotland there's been heavy hints by both sides that he may take his first job since Tyneside by going up to Tynecastle.

Elsewhere there's the traditional David Pleat links, but perhaps the most odd news of the day is that Milan and Harry Redknapp are ready to make friends again and - wait for it - the pair haven't ruled out ever working together again.

Should we be on standby for Harry's reappointment and the continuining of The Great Ego Wars?