Monica Didn't Fit the Role, Apparently.

The second surprise in a couple of days has been the promotion of assistant Head Coach Les Reed to the job of running the team. We all knew that he would be in charge for Saturdays game but the surprising news was that it has been termed "permanent".

We all expected another period of rumours, hints, sightings and mysterious interviews in clandestine hotel rooms before another top name was unveiled. Souness, McLeish, Davies who would it be?

Instead we get a bespectacled 54 year old with a distinctly low profile. Not what we expected at all. Its all very well to applaud the idea of a "boot camp" that Liverpool first promoted in the 80's when they produced managers of the calibre of Shankly, Paisley and Evans but would it work here?

So we need to look at the events of the last 6 months to see the answer to what is really going on here.

Curbs became a big figure at the club during his 15 years and one of Murrays rare outbursts was heard back in May when he said that "this club is more that Alan Curbishley". Bit of a strange thing to say at the time really. Was Murray a bit resentful of Curbs high profile and his own ignored position? And did this lead directly to his decision to create, in the future, a management team including not a single high-profile manager but a series of lower roles, a Head Coach, Assistant Coaches and a General Manager?

The idea of a management team working together sucessfully or not would seem to be key to the sacking. The reasons have been stated by Varney and we need look no further.

Varney said yesterday: "There was an element that came out in the review that Iain had not delivered what was promised in his interview. And then "In the situation we find ourselves in, it is also vital that everyone works as a team. Unfortunately, I have to say that has not been the case."

So maybe its not a case of Dowie that was failing here but rather his part in Murrays ideal "management team", because I think we can dismiss any talk of player revolts, difficult training methods, etc as irrelevant hot-air. Maybe he wasn't seen to be a team player, accepting advise when offered. So what what to do? Well, what better continuance of the Management Team "idea" than to sack the one that was not a part of the Team and then promote from within.

And maybe it's my dislike of the very thought of Team Players but while we're on the subject, its not a very nice way to inform someone of their demise. Using the phone to tell them "You're out, would you like to come to the training ground to discuss it". There's better ways of sacking people.

Meanwhile what of our new boy ? Back in October CAFC introduced us to more new ideas, its blog (!), which is really not a Blog at all, but it allowed reed to broadcast a few words about his job and what he does. At the time, it made for some interesting reading. Although you could see that the forcasting of points obtained in the next 4 or 5 games was a Big Mistake - Les, in future please take each game as it comes, - it can only lead to delusionment and egg on face.

Oh, and by the way, Good Luck in your new job.