MY current bedtime reading is The Sack Race by Chris Green which concerns the trials and tribulations of management, the long hours and, sometimes, the vitriolic abuse.

There can be no doubt that there are pressures on managers - a recent television programme recorded Sam Allardyce's heartbeat going from 46 beats per minute up to 162 during a relegation battle.

It baffles me how the directors of a club come to appoint a manager and what criteria they use. Sometimes I wonder whether it comes down to the colour of the tie he wore at the interview.

Yet you can see a great deal of logic in other appointments.

At Newcastle it would have been far cleaner if Sir Bobby Robson had left during the close season rather than four or five games in.

But from all the reports coming out, the dressing room needed pulling around and it probably needed a certain type of manager to do that.

Although Newcastle supporters were reluctant to accept Graeme Souness, you can see the logic in the choice of someone who has the reputation for being fairly strict, having a code of conduct and making sure that players adhere to it.

Similarly, Sheffield Wednesday supporters thought they needed a big name, but Paul Sturrock's record at Plymouth shows he is a great choice. He really galvanised the club there and now Wednesday need a manager who knows the lower divisions and has proved that he can do it.

The manager's job entails many aspects that you have to be competent in - talent-spotting, coaching, the organisation of the club - but the biggest one for me is man management.

If there's one thing you need in abundance it's the ability to deal with people and in the most successful manager in English football at the moment, Arsene Wenger, you have the prime example of that.

He has brought a lot of talented players to Arsenal who had ability but perhaps had lost their way at other clubs. His man management skill has brought out the very best in people like Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira.

Players coming to the end of their careers these days have every opportunity to prepare for a career in management rather than it being a hit and miss affair of finishing playing one day and being appointed as a manager the next. That's happened too many times in the past.

At least now players do have a chance to learn some of the aspects of management and maybe some of the problems which will arise.