The players who didn’t earn their loyalty bonuses

As anyone who has ever divorced will testify, sometimes it is necessary to call time on a big commitment. Footballers who sign big money contracts are no strangers to this maxim, but some jump ship a little earlier than expected. With this in mind, Spoiler correspondent Ben Baker has compiled a top ten list of the shortest spells in football club history. And guess who tops the list…

Sol Campbell
After a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance at Meadow Lane and a quick team photo, the man whom Spurs fans lovingly refer to as ‘Judas’ picked up his boots and walked out on his £40,000-a-week contract. If he manages to stay fit and win his war with his own metabolism, perhaps a fleeting appearance in the MLS lies ahead for football’s least decisive man..

Ali Dia
A favourite story among football fans who are less than supportive of Graeme Souness (and let’s be honest, there are a fair few): after allegedly receiving a call from former World Footballer of the Year George Weah ‘bigging up’ his ‘cousin’, Souness signed him up without reservation. He even had the audacity to replace Sir Tiss with him. Dia was so dreadful that he was hauled off, lasting about 20 minutes. Oh well, Southampton’s loss was Gateshead’s gain…kind of.

Dietmar Hamann
After it appeared that Hamann was surplus to

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Former gaffer is the current favourite for the Rovers gig

Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince today became the sixth Premier League manager to leave their post this season, in the process saving what was in danger of being a chronically slow news day (front page of The Sun: Benitez’s kidney stones; back page of The Sun: Capello wants the Wembley grass shorter). Here are the leading contenders to replace the Guv’nor at Ewood Park according to chickendinner:

Graeme Souness (best price: 5/2 with Paddy Power)
Souness took the club back into the Premier League and won the League Cup during his first spell as manager between 2000 and 2004 and starts as the early favourite to regain the position after newspaper reports over the last few days linked him to the post. He walked out of the club four years ago for Newcastle after a winless start which left Rovers in the relegation zone, and at the time it was rumoured that Souness had jumped before he was pushed.

Sam Allardyce (best price: 3/1 general)
In case you haven’t read a newspaper since January, Sam Allardyce is pretty interested in finding himself a job and having previously overachieved without spending much money at Bolton, he is a strong candidate. However, Blackburn opted for Ince over more experienced candidates like Allardyce and Steve McClaren in the summer so Big Sam may bear a grudge.

Alan Curbishley (best price: 10/1 with Paddy Power)
Two years ago Curbishley took charge of a West Ham team

Blackburn not good enough for inexperienced MOTD pundit

The Daily Telegraph are today reporting that Alan Shearer may turn down the chance to succeed Mark Hughes because he “is not convinced that Blackburn would be the right place for him.”

Yes that’s right, a man whose post-retirement career has relied on professionally stating the bleedin’ obvious (and making Mark Lawrenson’s analysis seem groundbreaking in comparison) on Match of the Day could turn down the seventh-best team in the Premier League because they aren’t ‘right’ for him.

In comparison, the candidates who could miss out because of Shearer’s apparent God-given right to a top job are Sam Allardyce, who took Bolton to a League Cup Final and into Europe, and Paul Ince, who since retiring has knuckled down and spent 18 months overachieving with Franchise FC in League Two, winning two trophies.

Shearer also appears ignorant of the opportunities afforded to Blackburn managers - the last two