Such is the arrogance of the football media in this day and age when many journalists are virtually on the pay roll of certain football clubs, I had to laugh at this one for its absurdity.
The media in this day and age in very different from than of the past, even of ten years ago, nowadays individual journalists are courted by football clubs, their Chairmen and their managers and for reasons best known to themselves are happy to use their columns in newspapers to get out the message to the footballing world that that club/chairman/manager wants them to. Add players and agents to that list who have their favoured journo's and you have a media these days that is more PR machine than a purveyor of actual fact.
That is why I find the latest article on Chelsea in the publication Metro quoting the Daily Telegraph not only laughable but arrogant in that it is suggesting that a manager in a job would rush to Stamford Bridge just for the chance to manage there for a few months.
The Metro is reporting that Chelsea who are on the verge of parting company with Jose Mourinho still have the likes of Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti & Fabio Capello as their preferred choice as permanent manager.
However as these candidates are not ikely to leave their clubs mid season, or want to join the car crash that is Cheslea at the moment for that matter, they are looking to Ronald Koeman to take the job on a temporary basis to the end of the season.
This is arrogance on a large scale and an insult to Ronald Koeman who they are suggesting would want to abandon permanent employment just for the chance to manage Chelsea for 5 months.
This is an assumption that every man is driven by money and that Chelsea can buy who they want and when they want for however long they want and that is probably what annoys me most about this.
As I say these days the national media is manipulate by the so called big clubs to do their bidding and this is the type of story that could not be made up, someone within Chelsea is using a media contact to test the water, not just with Saints, but with regard to the actual sacking of Mourinho and to alert potential replacements of what the situation is likely to be, it is almost an invite to managers to apply for Mourinho's job before they have sacked him and saying that his position could be available on a permanent or temporary basis.
In job advertisment terms it is saying " The temporary job could suit someone out of work at present or with a lesser club who could be brushed aside easily, who puts money before personal reputation."
I think that Chelsea will find that Ronald Koeman is made of better stuff than that, of course any manager of his calibre would normally be interested in a job at a club the size of Chelsea, but probably not so interested at one with the morals and ethics as they have shown in the past and certainly not in a temporary role.