It Takes All Sorts

"Russia defeat mystifies McLaren" is the headline on the BBC website describing the England manager's reaction to tonight's 2 -1 defeat at the hands (or should I say feet) of Russia.

Now call me old fashioned. Call me naive even. But if the England manager doesn't know what went wrong .... how are the rest of us supposed to?

Apparently McLaren is a "scientific manager". Such managers, it seems, favour techniques such as snowboarding lessons, primal scream therapy, and the use of ice baths for the players after a match.

There are clearly various "types" of football manager.

Firstly there are "The Thinkers". They include the likes of Arsene Wenger, Sam Allardyce and Rafa Benitez.

Other types are "The Motivators" (a la Bryan Robson, Pearce and O'Neill), "The Hardmen" (like Souness, Hughes and Sanchez)," The Organisers" (including Curbishley, Moyes and Yol). And last, but not least, "The Assassins" (Mourinho and Ferguson).

Oh and of course there is one more group. A group which seems disproportionately large (although not, apparently, statistically significant) as a percentage of football managers, comprising the likes of Moyes, Strachen, McLaren, and our very own Megson.

"The Gingers".

Although even the ginger people seem to be defecting to the world of rugby at the moment.