GILLINGHAM boss Andy Hessenthaler's sacking this week reminded me it was only 12 months ago that I first met him.

I was at Gillingham managing a team of all-stars for a charity named after the late, great ITV commentator Brian Moore.

Andy took part in the game and I enjoyed talking with him and his wife in the after-match buffet.

We talked about the tough decisions football families have to make when offers come in to move on - schooling for the children, the upheavel of changing homes, leaving friends and family.

Andy had been at Gillingham for many years and doing the hardest job of all - playing and managing at the same time.

This season the team had not started too well and the warning signs were probably there when John Gorman was brought in to assist him. No doubt the family discussions will revolve around 'Should we have moved when we had the chance?' Such is football life.

The manager merry-go-round is in full flow as Sammy McIlroy, Jim Smith and Harry Redknapp have also all left this week. This brings the total up to nearly 50 managerial changes in a year and while Harry will be in great demand, the boys from lower down the league will find it more difficult.

Interesting that four of the names mentioned in connection with the Portsmouth job all had Saints connections - Hoddle, Strachan, Jones and Adams - and with Jordan and Bond there, we have an unusual situation.

Whatever the outcome, the big names who have operated more recently in the Premiership are not always in too much of a rush to get back on the bandwagon simply because, if their contract has been cancelled, by the well-worn expression of mutual consent (people rarely get the sack any more) they do get a very handsome pay-off.

Which usually explains the Hollywood-style speeches made by all concerned at the parting of the ways where chairman and manager publicly state their love, admiration and gratitude to each other, which has us all reaching for our hankies.

Rarely do the public ever find out the exact details of a manager's going, although some clubs don't hide things as much as others in their balance sheets.

Liverpool, for instance, recently announced that they had forked out nearly £11m in the last 12 months in compensation for cancelled contracts for staff and players, with Gerard Houllier alone picking up £4m.

So naturally the boys from the big league can afford to wait around for a while, play a bit of golf and have a few breaks in Mauritius and Dubai, etc where often, by coincidence of course, they might bump into Premiership chairmen who are also having a break from the rigours of their executive jobs.

The vast majority of sackings are in the lower divisions and unfortunately the pay-offs - if any at all - are such that other employment has to be found fairly quickly.

And with not enough jobs available, the loss to the game of people such as the ex-Gillingham boss is becoming such that the League Managers Association are starting courses to prepare them for work opportunities away from the game.

Probably Andy and Sammy McIlroy have been in football since they left school and know nothing else, which explains that when MK Dons advertised the manager's job last week they had 60 applications in a few days.

The need for success seems more urgent now, hence the rapid turnover. But too many changes at the top never helped any organisation. Continuity create stability, stability brings confidence and confidence brings success.