Speculation

Chris Mort has used his programme notes for tonight's game against Stoke to set out the job spec for the manager's role, which unsurprisingly focuses on the merits of good football and youth development (you can read the whole thing on nufc.com). Interestingly, it also highlights the need for an English speaker (which would presumably have ruled out Fabio Capello should he still have been available).

Which leads us to a brief survey of the current names doing the rounds.

As far as I can work out, the rumour mill has been working over drive in the last week, and can be summarised as: Redknapp (he said no), Shearer, Keegan, Hughes, Houllier, Deschamps.

From what I can understand, Shearer didn't want it, but now does. Only we don't want him.

Hughes refused to rule himself out of the running, but for whatever reason now appears to be drifting away from the post.

Houllier is possibly interested but reports suggest he's not going to leave his job with the French Football Federation.

Which leaves Deschamps. He did well with Monaco and managed to get Juventus promoted. However, he did sign Boumsong for Juve and he's only actually got a handful of seasons of management under his belt. If experience of management is such an important part of the job description, does he really have enough? Oh, and what has he won as a manager?

At the end of the day, I don't think any of us are any the wiser. Although I think it's safe to assume that Mourinho has his eye on bigger prizes...