BRIAN LAWS, Darren Ferguson, Mark Stimson, George Burley, Chris Hughton and, I almost forgot, Sam Allardyce.

All are managers who have all been relieved of their duties either side of Christmas and New Year.

Roy Hodgson is apparently teetering on the brink, and even Carlo Ancelotti is under pressure with Chelsea, only the fifth best team in the country at present, and yet everyone’s favourite for the axe, misery guts Avram Grant, is as safe as houses after West Ham picked up seven points from three games.

Football management is about as safe as a bungee jump without the harness these days.

Every vacancy attracts predictable candidates, ex-players, lifelong supporters, or out-of-work managers twiddling their thumbs in Dubai.

Allardyce or Hughton for Preston or Burnley, Lee Clark and Simon Grayson for any club looking for the new up-and-coming Premier League managers of the future, Gary Megson for any club north of Watford.

Sadly nobody mentions Joe Royle, Jim Smith or Dave Bassett any more.

I really hope Micky Adams sorts out Sheffield United.

He’s in the lifetime fan bracket, as someone who stood on the terraces at Bramall Lane as a boy, but a word of warning, and the same goes for Kenny Dalglish, and those who yearn for him back at Anfield.

It doesn’t always work out that the conquering hero brings back the good times.

For instance Bremner, Clarke and Gray and McAllister at Leeds, McCall at Bradford City, Laws at Burnley and Snodin at Doncaster Rovers.

All good guys who really wanted to do well because of a love of a club but found the job too tough.

Just as I wish Micky well at Sheffield, so I hope Stuart McCall resurrects his career at Motherwell. He deserves a second chance.

Memo to Messrs Cole, Terry, Crouch, Rooney etc, etc. Read page 101 of the current issue of World Soccer.

“The body of kidnapped Carlos Mercedes Vasquez of Guatemalan first division club Malacteco was found chopped up and left in five plastic bags with a note saying he had been killed for messing with other women!

The odd Sunday newspaper headline seems mild by comparison.