Great story from today's Guardian.

The new football season has hardly got into its stride yet the manager merry-go-round has already begun. This time it is the turn of bottom-of-the-division Leicester. There is only one thing clubs do in such circumstances: sack the manager. Unlike other disciplines, leaving under a cloud does not make the slightest difference to job prospects - casualties simply go into a pool waiting for the next vacancy. So it is at Leicester, where Harry Redknapp, lately of West Ham and George Graham (Arsenal and Tottenham) are immediately in the frame - as long as Mr Graham is not snapped up by Birmingham City where Trevor Francis may be squeezed out even as we write. Football clubs sack their managers because otherwise they would have no protection. Hell hath no fury like the wrath of angry fans. There is no alternative.

Or is there? A team called PK-35 in Finland has inverted the paradigm. The fans have taken over the asylum. Hundreds of supporters who have registered as virtual club managers receive text messages on their phones before and during the games. They are, for instance, asked about tactics and whether Beckham (or his equivalent at this level of Finnish football) should be substituted for Chadwick or whoever. Fans give a speedy response and the manager is bound by the majority decision. It would be easy to dismiss this as Finnish fantasy football except for one thing. Since the start of the experiment PK-35 has shot up from near the bottom to leading the division with a few games to go. Maybe the Premiership should take note. Managers would surely acquiesce as it would give them what they have long craved: job security. In future when managers fail, fans can have no one to blame but themselves.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Answers

I've saved the following inot my mobile already

SUB BARTN NOW

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

also : SACK BOARD

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Is it only me who gets seriously hacked off with folk having their poxy phones ringing to tell them the score all the time? Do they take photographs of themselves to find out what they're wearing as well?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

how about 'buy (enter player name here)now'

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Not jsut you Softie... but I'm a dinosaur and have only just bowed to pressure from my daughter (14y) to get a mobile.

I have 3 modes:
1)in and will answer calls
2)out 3)out and need a phone

The mobile comes in only on #3 and then it' only about 0.0002% of the time and even then I can usually find a pay phone.

I wish the damn things had never been invented. They are a real curse on society.

Anyho.... I think fitting 40000 keypads in SP to control subs/tactics would win us more games than lose. WE all know what's going wrong ;-)

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Oh Howay man Geordie. Hasn't "Pervasive Computing" reached the bowels of Hursley yet? Just remember the dinosaurs - they got relegated for not keeping up with technology '-)'

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

How man Screach I'm on the bleeding edge man! Last year I was working on S/360 S/370 I mean S/390.

Any old iron, any old iron....

Mobiles? Pah! when I were a lad....

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Hang on Geordie, wait a sec. Here they are. I've got a couple of empty baked bean tins. Have you got any string (and I'm not asking about your underwear)?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

nowt wrong with flags... or smoke signals

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

...--- ?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I'm with Geordie, they're a nuisance. Computers are the same - passing fad just like skateboards & BMX, I give them 5 more years tops.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

And that internet thingy will never catch on.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001