Who’d be a football manager?

Yesterday, Steve Bruce looked the very epitome of the ashen-faced soccer boss immortalised by Private Eye as his Birmingham City crashed out of the FA Cup in a 7-0 home defeat by Liverpool. City’s woeful performance will have done nothing to steel them for the fight against relegation.

Today, Graham Rix was fired by Hearts chairman Roman Romanov after just four months at the Scottish Premierleague club. Rix’s demise was the latest in a series of bizarre decisions by the Romanovs. George Burley had led the team to the top of the league before he was sacked in October. Later, majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov picked the team for a game against Dundee United, prompting a player revolt. (Not the first time a Romanov has faced a revolution.)

If you buy a football club, you expect to get your own way. But why do so many club owners seem to have the Midas touch in reverse? Take Newcastle United. Hiring and firing Graeme Souness – a manager past his sell-by date in the Premiership – cost the Geordie club around £7 million. Less than two years after paying off Sir Bobbie Robson. They’re now on the hunt for yet another manager….

Steve Bruce probably won’t be on the shortlist after last night…