of why the club should play its cards close to its chest with things like this, never mind the "i'm a fan i've a right to know everything" brigade we now look a laughing stock and whoever gets the job, now knows they were at least 3rd choice. we are paying customers thats all, i'm a paying customer at woody's chippy but the dont consult me when they're giving someone a job behind the counter
But if the eventual candidate had actually applied for the job, what does it matter if they were 'at least 3rd choice'? Would you turn down a job you'd gone after if you found out two people before you had been offered it and declined?
To be fair, I think the club have only done this once the news has broken. I'm not sure to what extent they'd intentionally publicised their approaches. With SOD, the speculation was triggered by the Star article, but that article seems to be a mixture of conjecture and leaked info. With Butcher, they had to seek permission to approach him, and I'm not sure from which side the information came that it had been given. However, at that point, it's a matter of time before the information comes out. In both cases, they're kind of in a no-win situation as to what they do from then on. If they deny everything, they'll be accused of keeping us in the dark, lying if later discovered to be true, etc. If they share the info, they get the criticism we're seeing today if someone turns down the role. I'm disappointed that we've not got our man yet, but I look at it this way. I'd have been very happy with either manager we've approached, and they were of a higher calibre than the ones I expected we'd be targetting when making the arguments a few weeks ago for retaining Hill, for the very reason that the club appears to be a very tough sell at the moment. Rather than lambast them for failing so far, I'd give them credit as they seem to have been thinking the same things that I was as a fan in their search, and this is encouraging. I'm sure they'd have preferred to do this with less publicity, but I think that has been largely out of their control due to the inevitable leaks of information, which then snowball. All they've really done is confirm news that was already out there.
First question for the new manager at his first press conference....... How does it feel being third choice for the job? I hope there is an answer being thought up.
If it were me it'd be "It's my opportunity to demonstrate that I should have been the first choice all along." There's plenty of managers working out there who weren't the first person offered the role they're in. It's a fact of life and anyone fickle enough to not want the opportunity for this reason are probably the one's viewing it as a short-term stepping stone until something better comes along.
