WHEN Nottingham Forest chairman Nigel Doughty admitted that Steve McClaren’s appointment as manager had been ‘a very poor one’ I think we all knew exactly what he meant.

Really the moment the man dubbed ‘the wally with the brolly’ was taken on at the City Ground I am sure we all felt that it was going to be too much to ask for the former England boss to truly settle in – and his resignation last weekend was no surprise.

While pundits have blathered on about results and the fact that the Forest board were not going to fork out the funds for players, the truth of the matter is that Steve needs to feel at home in a job and – in the style of Woody Allen’s chameleon-like Zelig character – blend in with the locals.

As a player he was never too much in the limelight and, being born in the Fulford district of York, he never had too much trouble fitting in at clubs like Hull, Lincoln or Derby – though rumours have surfaced that during the 61 games he played at Bristol City he had begun to sound a little like Ian Holloway.

Even when he moved into management his determination to fit his surroundings was not immediately forced to the surface as anyone sounds more local than the boss when they are playing second fiddle to Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson – and that includes Carlos Queiroz and even, at times, Mike Phelan.

When he moved to Middlesbrough his York tones merely sounded posh to the Teessiders, and let’s face it coming across slightly well-to-do is what fans want from a manager.

Next up was England so no problem there, though McClaren surprisingly managed to resist the temptation to take h-elocution lessons in the manner of Sir H-Alf Ramsey, but then he came into his own when he moved to Holland with Twente Enschede.

Wonderfully he settled in by winning a championship title and proving that it is not only the guys from the Fast Show who can conquer the definitive ‘sch’ sound that the Dutch bring to the English language.

He was then blown slightly off course at Wolfsburg where, again, poor results appeared to be at the root of his dismissal – though those in the know are aware the reason was that the German accent he had adopted came across too much like Lieutenant Gruber in Allo Allo.

So Macca wound up without a job, but reportedly turned down a number of offers as he waited for the right opportunity.

Many felt he was looking to bring his Ray Winstone impression into play but Kenny Jackett was not about to leave Millwall, and he was ready to put his best Gladys Pugh from Hi De Hi take-off on the line at Swansea City, but he never got to start a training session by bellowing ‘Good Morning campers!’

So, as the Forest chairman intimated, it was a huge surprise when McClaren opted to go to Nottingham.

McClaren was already aware of the evidence that even an actor of the stature of Russell Crowe – an Academy award winner! – had been seriously lampooned for his wretched effort at an East Midlands accent in the film Robin Hood, so you have to ask did McClaren really ever have a chance of fitting in at the City Ground if a top Hollywood star couldn’t get any closer to a Nottingham twang than sounding as though he came from Donegal?

Surely there will be another job along sometime soon for a man with McClaren’s CV, but I am treating the rumours he is to take his Rab C Nesbitt impression to Greenock Morton as spurious.