Football Food For Thought / Frank Gregan / 03 June 2009 /

Gordon Strachan, Eric Cantona and Steve Coppell all once wore the famous Man Utd number 7 jersey as well as making the headlines in the last week, albeit for very different reasons. Frank Gregan investigates.

It's been a week in which famous former Manchester United number sevens have made the news. Eric Cantona has been promoting his film debut and two others have left their respective management posts.

Both Steve Coppell and Gordon Strachan have packed their bags and said goodbye to the circus that is football management. Strachan has headed off to Spain for a much needed break and looks sure to return to the management madhouse sooner rather than later but it may well be that Coppell decides to draw a line under his managerial career and finds something else to fill his days with.

They have more in common than having once been the proud owners of the Manchester United number seven shirt. Both looked to have their clubs in great nick and within sight of the finishing line this season, but both blew up. They have done sterling work at their respective clubs and can look back on their tenures with pride.

Steve Coppell took over Reading in 2003 and although they had a fantastic infrastructure off the park, they lacked quality on it. It took Coppell three years to deliver promotion but deliver he did and the Royals enjoyed a superb first year in the Premier League.

Adrenalin gets so many newly-promoted sides into false positions and such was their case. When reality kicked in with a vengeance, they were relegated during the 07-08 campaign after a second-half-of-the-season slide. It looked as if they would bounce back immediately after a superb start to last season but once again they faltered and stuttered at the business end and wasted countless opportunities to return to the Promised Land.

Coppell has been very honest about the reasons for his departure, he has admitted that he has no idea how to fix the problems at the club and it's time for a change of regime. The timing of his leaving is probably in the best interests of all parties, which is not necessarily the case with Gordon Strachan.

Celtic failed to retain their SPL crown this year but had they done so, he would have been the first Celtic manager to win four league titles on the spin since Jock Stein. That would have been a great achievement and although it was a case of 'close but no cigar' he could have taken solace from the fact that he ran Rangers close and that next year will likely be another coin toss as to which part of Glasgow lifts the trophy.

He has stated publicly what a fantastic club Celtic are to manage and how privileged he has been to hold the post. Why then has he given it up? There was the public spat with Aiden McGeady and his handling of the situation reportedly did not go down well in the dressing room. Clashes of that nature happen all the time between players and managers and unless the player has Le Tissier, Shearer or Cantona-type status amongst the fans there is only one winner - the guy who picks the team!

His exit seems to be based on his philosophy that three years is the maximum time that a manager should spend at a football club and he has exceeded that. It's an old adage; one very senior manager once said to me "you can change a club in three years, after that it changes you."

Betfairians are struggling to pick the next incumbent of the hot seat at Parkhead. Roberto Martinez has been traded as high as [300] and as low as [2.0] and has now levelled out at [5.6]. Current joint favourites are Tony Mowbray and Owen Coyle at [4.4] each to back.

Tony Adams had Celtic fans everywhere looking for a calendar to check it wasn't the 1st of April after he declared he was close to securing the job. Younger fans seemed to be enjoying the joke whilst the older ones were left clutching their chests and bemoaning the shooting pains in their left arms - these folk can remember that their board once appointed John Barnes! It's tempting to be a bit Les Dennis about this and say if Adams gets the job, I'll give you the money myself, but stranger things have happened - ask Joe Kinnear!

One of the most famous Manchester United number 7s - Eric Cantona returned to the city this week for the red carpet treatment and the premiere of his big screen debut, "Looking for Eric." The film is directed by Ken Loach and I was once very nearly directed by him. He is a football man and has been a director of Bath City on and off for over twenty years and was on the board when I was considering the manager's job there a few years back. Bummer - I could have been the next Marlon Brando. On second thought, the chances of that are about the same as Tony Adams getting the Celtic job!

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