Looking for Mr Perfect...

With the recent departure of Gary Johnson from his position of manager of Northampton Town it has left the Cobblers looking for a new leader. At the moment nobody has a true idea of who that might be, although there are two clear front runners in Colin Calderwood and Nicky Forster. Both of these managers are at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of experience, one has got promotions on his CV and has managed 100's of matches, the other is new to management and it is almost impossible to form an opinion on his management style based on cold hard facts.

Having spoken to lots of fans about who they might want, there is no overwhelming favourite this time around, which may be a good thing considering Gary Johnson, or as I affectionately call him - Coco The Clown, was a massive fans favourite for the job after the sacking of Ian Sampson and look where Coco has taken us, almost out of the football league!
What sort of criteria is needed to be the next Cobblers manager? I have heard all the following things listed by fans, young, ambitious, experienced, level headed, play good football, have good connections, excite the fans, have a good name, don't be like Coco, be organised and numerous more. Now to be honest there is no manager with all of that, it's just not possible to find someone that ticks every single box so whoever David Cardoza plumps for is therefore going to be a risk. If he chooses an old experienced guy who has fallen from grace a bit and is looking to resurrect his career then there will be obvious comparisons with Gary Johnson. If he picks a young up and coming manager who has had relative success in non league then there is the risk that he won't be able to handle the pressure of taking a club from the lower reaches of League 2 and turning them into a decent outfit.

 
The current man on everyones lips is Nicky Forster, now he has had an amazingly short career as manager which has totalled just 28 games, 21 for Brentford and 7 for his current club Dover. Is that enough to say he is a great prospect and someone we should trust to turn the fortunes of our football club around? I'm not sure it is, certainly considering Dover are relatively well off at their level and should challenge for honours no matter who is manager, his time at Brentford was a success but it was only on a caretaker basis, there are some massive question marks over his management ability and it would be one helluva a risk BUT maybe that is a risk we need to take?
As for Calderwood, he was a massive success during his spell here last time, yes he played quite boring football but it was effective and something I would be happy to see come back if it meant we started winning games again! The problem with Calderwood is he would split the fan base which is not a good thing, also I think it is pretty clear he fancies the job of Chris Hughtons tea boy at Birmingham.

David Cardoza has such an unenviable task here, perhaps the biggest appointment of his leadership as chairman of Northampton Town, he deserves some success which is probably why he is trying to persuade Calderwood back, the only true manager he has had success with. Get this appointment wrong and we could be facing a derby with Kettering Town next season, providing Kettering make it through the season of course, seems Imran Ladak is doing his best to alienate their supporters, perhaps the curse of Nene Park is striking once again?

We need a manager who is going to buy into the Northampton Town experience, a manager who is prepared to flirt with 50p Lil, a man who is willing to do his Christmas shopping in Poundland, someone who will drink at the King Billy with his leathers on, someone who will moan his arse off at every little thing and someone who doesn't mind being disappointed by broken promises.

Someone who buys into the Northampton experience is someone who will be successful for our football club. Coco the clown never bought into the experience, there was never any connection between the fans in the town and Coco, except for us wanting to through pies at his fat face which is hardly the basis of a good relationship. The new man must also be the worlds greatest football manager otherwise he will get pelters from our impatient fans, so we aren't asking for much are we?!
In an ideal world whoever takes over the helm will just be given the criteria of steadying the ship this season and then having a push for the play offs next season, we have to accept that there will be no quick fix, we are almost at the lowest possible place for a league club to be. We have to be realistic and accept that at the moment we are about as good as Renford Rejects, with the right man in charge we could eventually be as good as The Hurricanes but it is going to take time to sort out this god forsaken mess that Coco the Cunt has got us into. Either way it promises to be an exciting and bumpy ride, strap yourselves in and get ready...