When the former Sunderland inside forward, Len Shackleton, wrote his autobiography he entitled one chapter: “The average director’s knowledge of football.” It comprised a blank page and ensured that, back in 1956, ‘Clown Prince of Soccer’ generated plenty of headlines.
Not that the late Shackleton was either joking or deploying a cheap marketing trick. One of the finest players of his generation, the England international retained an immense scepticism about many boardroom manoeuvrings and would doubtless have had something suitably caustic to say about Tony Mowbray’s shock sacking last Monday. Has anything really changed since the mid-20th century?
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