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It hardly seems like yesterday that and the . In fact it's eight years and probably nine managers ago (umpteen more when you start to include little appearances by ' - the poor man's Red Adair - the , Dodd and Gorman, etc.). - it's a cracking venue for corporate events, dinners with 60 executive rooms and enough space for 500 guests, so I've read. It's just a bit cack for footy.

It's hard not to tip the whole hot steaming pile of blame on to the doorstep of . Lowe seemed at times to employ novices in order that he might have more sway himself. And yet his footballing acumen was writ large in the appointment of .

What the hell was that about?! They're different sports, man! Presumably Rupert's conservatory was put together by the best plumber in Hampshire and his yachts are maintained by Kwik Fit.

It was Lowe who set up this as well. Personally I don't know of one football fan who doesn't express despair when he hears his club is just a subsidiary of some non-descript company who own a load of other stuff that's got nowt to do with the game. It means that financial considerations outside the football club itself can have more bearing on its success that what's put out on the park every Saturday.

(In Liverpool's case it appears that owners seem prepare to take profits out of the football club in order to pay debts acquired in purchasing the damn thing in the first place. If you need a good example of how t*ts up footy could be going, you could do worse than start there.)

I've not been following the fortunes of Charlton and Norwich as closely, save for . Think Norwich and you think of and how good the half-time pies must be. Delia will have to keep knocking out the cookbooks now if she wants the club to bounce back Leicester-style. Difficult to know where she can go after , though. I've already mentioned a cookery guide for blokes which would simply be a list of her favourite local takeaways... maybe she can add tomes called How To Pretend You Cooked It, or How to Thaw Out Your Mam's Stews. I'd buy it.

. For a while they were the essence of a good club run by a sound manager who achieve beyond their means and quality on paper - or, as we now call it, Everton.

What worries me as a fan of a club over whom the shadow of relegation looms like the backlit silhouette of Carlos Tevez on a net curtain, is that these three set a precedent. The response to the drop can be twofold: haul yourself up off your knees and clamber back into the top tier making cocky claims on the way (the /Birmingham approach) or lie still and unblinking while they waft the smelling salts under your nose (the /Leeds United approach). All right, that's an unearned dig at the Hitman and that fight reminded me that while I love boxing, I just turn into a right Jessie . I'm pleased Ricky's ok and I hope he never bothers with it again.

After a North-West 3 North-East 0 weekend, when and the respective and , you can see at least one club from the hotbed of football sliding further down than just the one tier. In fact I can see floods of tiers for the lot of us.

For Southampton, read Newcastle: badly run, more managers than an NHS trust, and loyal support, not enough points.

For Charlton, read the Boro: nice family club, fans none too expectant, .

Actually, of the Premiership this season. Fact is, , always supposing that . Lawro said it's the biggest game Boro's had for 11 years. . I predict an ugly, error-strewn 2-1 and .

I won't say who for though but. What was I saying about mid-table obscurity? I'd sell my house and all its contents for a bit of that right now.