Is Appleton really Blackburn's Messiah?

Jobsite! It's Appleton's favourite website

As Blackburn Rovers appoint Michael Appleton as their new boss, where's this hyperactive game of managerial musical chairs taking us? 

Blackpool granted him permission to speak to Rovers - despite only being at Bloomfield Road two months.

Before that, he spent 10 minutes at Portsmouth and had a quick trip round West Bromwich Albion on the coaching staff.

Fans on Stadium Tours get more accustomed to the surroundings!

Collecting a CV quicker than you get your holiday snaps developed is a symptom of trigger happy chairmen's impatience. They're sacking bosses because they’re perceived not to be big enough characters. It used to just be about getting results. Now bosses get boned because they’re not more famous.

Stepping into that vacuum is someone like Michael Appleton, highly rated in the game largely because he’s not got anything wrong yet – because he's not done much except drive around the country signing coaching contracts.

Sean O'Driscoll left Nottingham Forest on the edge of the Championship play-offs having beaten Leeds 4-2 - and replaced by Alex McLeish. Flippin' Eck, you might say!

He's got more tracksuits than Sports Direct

The former Birmingham and Aston Villa boss is supposed to be more capable of dealing with the rigours of the January transfer window.

Next thing, Forest get beaten 3-2 at home by Oldham, a team further down the Football League and the decision looks cack-handed to say the least.

The Championship's jittery because owners and chairmen all realise the riches of the newly-capitalised Premier League would provide their club with even bigger cash injections than before. Television revenues are set to increase by a whopping 70%.

Leeds United and Nottingham Forest have both changed ownership because of it and the inexperience of the new custodians makes the manager's life even more precarious than it was before.

So as Rovers sign up Appleton, they seem perfect bedfellows. Neither has a gameplan.

Significance this weekend at Wembley and in the Premier League

4-nil. The two most emphatic scorelines of this Premier League weekend carry a weight of significance and destiny for both the winners and losers.

Manchester United didn't even play well at Wigan, but it's a win which hoists them above the chasing pack in the title race and consigns the journeymen and mercenaries of Wigan to life in the Championship (or an impending transfer to a German or Turkish club, more like).

And Wolves' thrashing of fellow strugglers Blackpool shows Mick McCarthy's men can produce results when they apply themselves, while showing up the Tangerine's inability to defend. The Kingson Cops, you might say!

Wolves fans will be dreaming of kicking off next season at home to Arsenal rather than away to Bournemouth or Brighton. Blackpool will surely be making travel arrangements to those other seaside resorts.

The other noteworthy result unrolled at Wembley as plucky Birmingham City showed grit, determination and muscular resolve to beat off pretty Arsenal, 2-1.

Blues deserved their trophy (and I say this is an Aston Villa fan who's spent his 43 years laughing at their constant failure). They deserved it because despite being outclassed in quality, possession and creation, Arsenal couldn't compete with them in terms of their gameplan; one cut of desire, of physicality - and of threat.

Make no mistake, Arsenal are a team of great quality who play their football the right way. In Jack Wilshere, England has a player fluid of movement and fluent of mind. Arsene Wenger's team will pick themselves up from this. They have to. One minute Blues, the next Barcelona in the Camp Nou.

But the misunderstanding between Koscielny and Szcezny which gifted Obafemi Martins his last-ditch tap-in, was borne of Birmingham's bullying rather than of their own making; an above board piece of gamesmanship as muscle crushed craft.

Their victory is also affirmation of the glory of winning silverware. Newcastle and Manchester City aside, there's no club who've failed more than Birmingham City. Fourth is no longer the new first as those joyous Wembley celebrations showed.

I've been to many games at the new stadium and I can honestly say, this was the best one played there since it was rebuilt.

The weekend's action demonstrated application, fitness and unity overcomes all. It's not great news for the football purist; but it is a rebirth of why the English game perpetually keeps us on the edge of our seats.

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Blackpool face Premier League trouble

Blackpool manager Ian Holloway is threatening to resign if the Premier League fine him for making ten changes for the league game at Aston Villa.

Jonny and Kev face off!

It was a match the Seasiders only narrowly lost anyway - to a last minute James Collins strike in a 3-2 defeat.

Kevin Hatchard, Sportsmedia radio reporter for 200 stations across the UK agrees with Holloway's stance and tells me it's none of the Premier League's business anyway.

As Kev will tell you, Holloway selected a starting XI from his 25 registered Premier League players, so what's the fuss?

Other top flight managers are rallying around him in support including Wigan boss Roberto Martinez and Mick McCarthy, who was involved in a similar controversy last season, when Wolves went to Manchester United with kids - and lost 3-nil.

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Play-offs would've stopped English football's greatest story

I overheard a conversation about Nottingham Forest last night. A casual observer asked if Forest had finished third in this season's Championship, why Blackpool, three places and nine points behind them would be in the Premier League instead of them next season?

The Tangerines, who on the last day of the season clinched the final playoff place, beat two teams in a knockout competition at the end of a rigorous campaign. Basically, Blackpool came into form at the right time as Forest got tired. The team who finish sixth often win promotion. When it was explained to the observer why the playoffs existed, "money" was the predictable, but truthful answer given.

Which reminds me. In 1977, Forest also secured third place in the same division to claim their place among the elite. There were no playoffs then. The rest, as they say, is history.

What came next was one of the most extraordinary ascents to the game's summit ever seen.

Brian Clough's men stormed all before them: signing Peter Shilton and Kenny Burns in the close-season, Forest went on to complete an astonishing League Championship and League Cup double followed by a successful defence of the League Cup and the first of two successive European Cups. Trevor Francis became the first million pound player and journeymen like John Robertson, Archie Gemmill and Tony Woodcock became football's biggest stars.

I'm not saying Billy Davies' charges would have done the same thing had they been promoted, but it's highly questionable if the extraordinary events would've unfolded for Cloughie's men had they been forced to play three more games at the end of a tough campaign, and just to earn the promotion they'd already won on merit.

There aren't relegation playoffs anymore as defeat for the vanquished is too painful, the drama too acute. Remember the riots at the Chelsea v Middlesbrough game at Stamford Bridge all those years ago? The conventional wisdom is that playoffs should be about a positive prize - promotion to the higher league. And that tired metaphor about the Premier League's Promised Land.

But given the history of Nottingham Forest, I am not sure about the play-offs at all.

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Whassup! Beware: these could be the new management teams at your club!

Worried Gooner over whether Arsene's got the answers? Concerned of Anfield about Rafa's contract? what about succession at Manchester United when Fergie calls time on his career?

Well, it could be a whole lot worse: it's majestic midfielders turned managerial muppets, Paul Ince and Bryan Robson (book him for taking his shirt off!). You'd be on target about a Manchester United conspiracy if these two were in charge of your starting eleven, so thank heavens for your current boss, eh?

Talking of Muppets, how about these two taking over in your club's boardroom? George Gillett and Tom Hicks might still own Liverpool, but their asset values are sinking faster than the Titanic. They've admitted they can't even muster enough cash to dig the first hole for the new stadium in Stanley Park. Mind you, if they did the Kop might volunteer to bury them in it!

No wonder Rafa's contract negotiations aren't about money!

And after Blackburn Rovers were linked with Graeme Souness, how about Souey and Terry McDermott returning to management? Souness is successful in every other job he's had, so after leaving Newcastle in a right two-and-eight, he'd probably sweep all before him at ... well, Blackpool?

Perhaps even Roy Keane's got more chance of an imminent return!

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