Meet the new boss – same as the old boss?

The managerial merry-go-round has stopped spinning, at least for now, but experience tells us that it won’t be long before it’s cranked up to full speed again.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that Roy Keane, having turned down the chance to manage in Turkey, was being “strongly linked” — as we like to say in the business when wildly speculating — with the vacant posts at Blackburn and Bolton and even the rumoured soon-to-be-vacant post of manager of Ireland, though the names of Mick McCarthy and Harry Redknapp tended to figure far more prominently in the many column inches devoted to what was supposed to be Giovanni Trapattoni’s last stand.

And where are we now? Dougie Freedman is ensconced at Bolton, his empty chair at Crystal Palace looking like it might be filled by Ian Holloway. Henning Berg has taken over at Blackburn. Mick McCarthy is back in the game at Ipswich. And while Roy and Harry remain on the outside looking in, Trapattoni has defied the predictions to remain in situ as boss of the Republic.