From Allison to Hoddle via Souness: beware the manager returning ‘home’ | Scott Murray

Martin O’Neill may have won two European Cups as a player for Nottingham Forest but while his appointment as manager may be a romantic tale such second comings rarely end well

Never go back, that’s what they say. It’s beneficial advice. But it is a warning that all too often goes unheeded. Look at them all, hooking up with their exes, visiting their hometown for the first time in years, booking the same holiday in the hope of reliving that perfect break. Don’t do it! That old flame won’t rekindle; an old foe will start a fistfight; it’ll rain all week and the hotel’s now infested with mice. No, it’s best to keep moving forward. Never go back.

They tell you this in the world of football too, but here again folk don’t always listen. History is strewn with tales of managers returning to their alma mater on a white charger in the windswept style, only to come a cropper in short order and limp off in abject defeat. It’s a state of affairs that may give Nottingham Forest pause, as they welcome back Martin O’Neill to the scene of his greatest playing successes, a managerial marriage that’s seemed inevitable for decades, but a romantic appointment fraught with danger.

Related: Martin O’Neill boards the Nottingham Forest train and wants express start

Related: Gary Crosby: ‘Sir Alex Ferguson called and told me what a mistake I’d made’

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Published on January 19, 2019 01:00
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