The choices for this week’s Goodreads all have a similar theme: upheaval. As poorly as England’s football managers are being treated on the whole right now, at least it makes for good blogging…

Nine weeks later and the common denominator, Up the ‘Pool ^[1]

So what really led to Michael Appleton ditching Blackpool for Blackburn so suddenly? Chris Walker ^[2] expertly assessed events earlier this week and made a series of bold statements in doing so, not least that ‘Karl Oyston is simply unfit for purpose as chairman of a football club’. It’s blogs like this that put local rags, too cosied up with the clubs they cover almost as a rule, to shame.

Things Fall Apart, To The Left of Ross ^[3]

Whereas Blackpool now appear to be unlikely contenders for a return to the Premier League, happier times perhaps lie ahead at Bristol City with Sean O’Driscoll coming in to rescue the proverbial damsel. Will Jones ^[4] puts knee-jerk adulation in a box here, though, picking apart the situation the Robins find themselves in. Here’s a taster: ‘The frustrating thing though is that we’re doing this now. Six years in the Championship, and we’re figuring out how to be a Championship club just as we fall out of it…’

Southampton FC Adds Fuel To The Fire Of Football’s Growing Winter Of Discontent, Twohundredpercent ^[5]

Just as the Robins appear to be playing being a football club by ear, Southampton chairman Nicola Cortese perhaps landed the biggest shock of the season thus far in sacking Nigel Adkins today. Supporters certainly didn’t see it coming: just last night I was on a bus with a Saints fan who seemed annoyingly taken with the way things were going at St Marys right now. I was bitterly jealous but, still, I’m not sure I would have wished this on her…

Ian King takes stock of the situation, making a nice comparison between the kind of slow, sustainable growth of Southampton’s past and the dirty, win-at-all-costs mentality that currently prevails within the south coasters’ boardroom.