It is fans, not players or owners, who get managers sacked

Boards rarely get thanked for making tough decisions

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You can bet on one thing in the football merry go around – whenever a manager is sacked, someone will pipe up to say it is the players who got him the sack by not performing. It is a conclusion hard to resist after recent events at Chelsea, despite denials from the senior players led by John Terry.

Yet I wonder if we have not got this all wrong. It is fans, with their hunger for instant success and impatience at what looks like failure, that force boards to act. In the last week, we have even had Liverpool fans turning on Kenny Dalglish, the hero whose return to Anfield became such a clamour that it led to the sacking of Roy Hodgson last season.