WHY SAY ANYTHING?

It started, more or less, with Unai Emery getting the Arsenal gig. The club wanted somebody who could match, or better, Arséne Wenger’s achievements during his last few years in the job. They certainly got that. Emery is adept at getting his clubs into the top four and has been known to actually win the Europa League on more than one occasion.

Hold on to your hats you Gooners, it’s going to be a roller-coaster ride full of “been there, done that” and déjà vu. Unai Emery will deliver one of the trophies Wenger failed to deliver but which will it be? Our money’s on Big Vase.

Chelsea are also in the market for a new manager despite already having a reasonably good one who has managed to win a couple of ‘A list’ trophies in his two seasons at the club.

They appeared to be favouring Luis Enrique, ex of Barcelona but, wouldn’t you just know it, he wanted to be involved in deciding which players were to come into the club. Imagine that! Actually wanting to pick the players whose performances will decide how long you are employed by the club!

Chelsea were having none of it and turned their attention to Maurizio Sarri who had just left Napoli but was still, somehow, under contract to them.

Because of this Chelsea would have to pay around €8 million in compensation and, when added to his prior habit of getting fined for calling other managers names, the club cooled their interest.

Lo and behold we are now back full circle to Luis Enrique who has now, according to the usual sources, decided that he can work with a director of football as long as he gets paid lots of money for his trouble.

Luis Enrique – The former Barcelona man is, reportedly, back on Chelsea’s wish list

This one hasn’t yet happened, but probably will if Roman Abramovich can be bothered to summon up the interest now that he has crossed Theresa May off his Christmas card list.

Marco Silva has appeared, as we all knew he would, at Everton. He is promising everything he promised at Hull City and then again at Watford. Let’s hope he can actually deliver some of his undoubted promise this time as he looks to be a promising young manager.

In order to succeed at Goodison Park he needs to ensure that the time between the start of his employment with the club and the end of it are separated by a few years and not, as in the past, a few months.

Manuel Pellegrini is, potentially, the best manager West Ham United have ever had. He comes with all the right credentials. In fact, he is overqualified for the Hammers job, so we are looking for big things from him.

As is usually the case with Pellegrini, he won’t go out of his way to court the media and most of his work will be done quietly but efficiently.

In fact the only time he is likely to make headlines is with a big new signing or if he gets held up on his way to a meal in Chile!

In an appointment which is attracting almost as much attention as the Arsenal job and more than the West Ham one, Joey Barton is now the new manager of Fleetwood Town. He is retiring from playing the game so he can concentrate all his efforts on making sure his players play the game in the spirit it was intended and not as he used to play it.

It will be interesting to see what Merseyside’s greatest philosophical brain can bring to the table as a manager

The dressing room will be resounding with half-time team talks built around quotes from Nietsche with the occasional swear word thrown in for effect.

In all seriousness, there is no reason to think that Barton cannot be a very good manager. He is a thinker and, despite what some people think, he is very intelligent and will not want to let anyone down in his new job. We expect to see Fleetwood climbing the table next season shortly before Joey falls out with the chairman and leaves in a huff!

So there’s a few managerial jugglings which have been taking place right under our very noses but now we are approaching the time when the players take over.

Fabinho has already gone to Liverpool so the snowball has begun to roll, albeit very slowly. Over the next few weeks there will be at least a couple of signings for Manchester United, at least two for Manchester City, another couple for Liverpool before Arsenal and Chelsea join in and maybe even Tottenham Hotspur.

Then there’s Everton, West Ham and Newcastle, who don’t usually get a mention on these pages.

Oh what fun we’ll have!