Forget November, enter December

When November periodically comes around, it like Comet Ison in footballing terms, cold weather for most of it with a brief heat of a managerial sacking as, almost like the Comet, a club manager hurtles too close to a burning P45, as Icarus-like, they fall into the oblivion of unemployment.  At least, that's what the lazy copy in newspapers proclaims when they want a quick filler for the pages.  But despite four managerial sackings over the weekend, three of them were in the Championship and of the three that occurred on Sunday, only one was from the Premier League.
Gary Flitcroft of Championship strugglers Barnsley got the boot on Saturday and Dave Jones of Sheffield Wednesday and Owen Coyle of Wigan Athletic were ordered to clear their offices on Sunday.  But as the clock ticked over at midnight on Saturday into a new month, Martin Jol of Fulham had made it, ensuring no Premier League managers were relieved of their posts throughout November, handing that particular statistic as Rooney-esque raking of studs down the back of the calf.
I had seen Fulham play live last season at Craven Cottage in mid-January, when the visitors just so happened to be Wigan, guided then by Roberto Martinez in all his immaculate tailoring and gleaming shoes.  Jol's team put in a good show for the first half, scoring from Giorgios Karagounis and seemingly capable of rattling much more into the opposition's net.  Wigan were relegation fodder and so it turned out come May.  In the second half, the Cottagers didn't know either to stick or twist - score a potentially match-defining second goal or hold on to what they had got.  Caught between two stools, they at first did not come unstuck but when Franco di Santo scored for the (incongruously monikered) Latics, Fulham trembled, gradually going ever more to pot.  By the end, Wigan were looking more likely to score a winner than Fulham were at stringing three passes together.  The grumbling crowd kept a lid on their emotions but on the blowing of the final whistle, sealing a 1-1 draw, many was the cry of "Jol out!"  At the time, as Jol trudged back to the changing rooms, he wore a sardonic grin of defiant pugnacity.
Ten and a half months later, the fans have their wish with the highly rated but unproven Rene Meulensteen completing his stalking brief and slipping seamlessly from Head Coach to Manager, after just two games.  Jol in the wake of his sacking was resigned to the inevitable, even to the point of saying better days lay ahead for Fulham (when this halcyon future would emerge was unclear).  He had been here before with Tottenham Hotspur, when in his last game in charge, everyone in the stadium knew he had been fired apart from him.  What could Fulham do that would top that?  Manhandle him out of Upton Park (the home of his ultimate nemesis West Ham) at half-time?
Noted managers have a habit of re-appearing on the managerial merry-go-round, despite the argument from the League Manager's Association saying that the majority never survive more than posting.  The more colourful ones can even make money for old rope as pundits, such is the saturation of football through pay-TV and terrestrial late-night highlights.  I like Jol as a person and he was honest enough to recognise the time was right to move on (with a hefty severance package, natch).  He might take some time away from the game before reappearing as a commentator on Dutch TV during the World Cup.  I believe wholeheartedl that, some managers have a use-by date where they cannot recapture their former glories, achieving mediocrity at best (George Graham at Leeds and Spurs and Kenny Dalglish at Newcastle and Liverpool for a second-time epitomise that).  It would be sad if Jol's career petered out like that.