Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 22 May 2013

22 May 2013

It's George Best's birthday today. How do I know that? Well, there's so little GTFC news that I was bored and googling stuff. You never know, it might pop up as a quiz question. Anyway, London Diary here, keeping things moving.

Apparently we're interested in signing George Kerr. I'm not entirely sure signing a 70-year-old will help... oh wait. Wrong Kerr. It's Scott Kerr. Concur? Good. According to the Telewag, Kerr (S) is on a list of 2,549 other potential targets this summer and may be in talks with the club. According to York fans he's good. We like good.

Anyway, having George Kerr back at the club last week had me thinking about returning managers. The 'special one' has officially left Real Madrid and is supposedly heading back to Chelsea for a period of time that nobody knows. I like to think that Jose Mourinho called up Alan Buckley for his opinion on going back to a former club. As a manager, going back to a former club is always going to be risky - will the fans still like you? Will the players look up to you? Will you still have your favourite parking space just by the club shop? Alan Buckley knows about this more than anyone else. Or does he?

This then got me wondering about managers who have returned to a club they have previously managed. Various gaffers have returned to clubs twice. Just look at Luiz Felipe Scolari, Harry Redknapp, Kevin Keegan, Eddie Howe, Kenny Dalglish et al. Steve Coppell returned to Crystal Palace four times, but in various roles: manager, director of football, flicker of the Subbuteo, tea lady, but not manager every time. Brian Laws technically is in his third stint as manager of Scunthorpe, but only because he was sacked for three weeks. I'm not counting that. They were on a Ross and Rachel style break. They were still going out. He's only managed them twice.

So, can anyone name a manager who has returned to manage the same club more than three times, like when Sir Alan of Buckley did? For the record, Sir Al managed Walsall twice (and a third time jointly) and then Grimsby Town thrice (and a fourth as under-17 boss). Get your Tony Pulis thinking caps on (he managed Stoke twice and so could do a third) and let us know. Ciao babes.