I WAS interested to read this week that one of our ex-managers, Ronald Koeman, had moved on yet again.

I say that because at the age of 57, having played on into his 30s, this will be his 11th job since starting as manager in 2000. I’m not saying he hasn’t been successful, he won lots of things in Holland and in Spain, but never seems to stay too long.

The job he had with managing his home country I would’ve thought was the pinnacle and he was only halfway through his contract when I read he was letting Barcelona know he was interested in returning.

This was after they had a very humbling loss, 8-2 to Bayern Munich, in the Champions League last Friday. I know how their manager, Quique Setien, must’ve felt after that result, but reading that Koeman was linked with his job a day or two before he actually got the sack wouldn’t have gone down too well.

Anyway he is now at Barcelona and he has already said he is looking forward to dealing with Lionel Messi, who is currently called one of, if not the best player around anywhere. He has been linked with moves as well but the one thing Ronald Koeman will have is respect, bearing in mind he and his brother, Erwin, were outstanding international players for Holland and he will forever be a legend there.

I have mixed feelings bearing in mind my time with England as manager of the B team and under-21s. I was on the bench alongside manager Graham Taylor for a crucial World Cup qualifier in Rotterdam in 1993. We were doing quite well. David Platt went through into the opposition penalty area and there was an obvious goal coming up until he was brought down by Mr Koeman. The referee was nearer the halfway line at the time. The linesman flagged, the referee blew his whistle and in the meantime, Ronald picked the ball up and moved a few yards to place it just outside the box.

We were laughing at this until the referee decided to make it a free-kick rather than a penalty. Why he didn’t check with the linesman we’ll never know. The free-kick hit their wall, it was knocked up into our half straightaway. They then got a free-kick and we had to put a wall up. Mr Koeman strolled up, took the free-kick, curled it round and scored the goal.

We eventually lost 2-0 and after the normal shaking of hands at the end of the game, I wondered why Graham was still standing on the touchline. The Dutch players were going around waving at the crowd, but he waited until Ronald walked by and he said ‘thank you, you have just cost me my job’.

That’s the sort of thing that can happen in the game and it proved to be right, sadly. But I suppose the good thing was Holland didn’t go on to win the World Cup.

Anyway, I will look with interest, as I think many of the other people will at the previous 10 teams he has managed, to see how he gets on at his latest club, where to be fair he will be ranked at the same if not a higher level than Mr Messi. I think if Messi stays, Ronald will get the best out of him. Let’s wait and see.

Arsenal staff members must be miffed

AS I’ve said previously, figures, and money in particular, surprise me even more, especially in these days with everyone being affected business-wise by the virus. Arsenal, who are one of my favourite clubs with how well they have been run over the years, surprised everyone with announcing the decision to make 55 members of their staff redundant recently. I have heard that the players were as upset as anyone and they surely must be embarrassed if they read what I did this week that one of their colleagues, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, at the age of 31 will be stocking up his pension fund as he is said to be about to sign a contract with a weekly wage of £250,000, for three years.

My maths isn’t too good but I’ve worked that out as a million pound every four weeks, which makes it £39million in total. I presume he’ll get a bonus or two if they win any competitions. They are also linked with signing more players. How will those members of staff leaving the club feel about that?

Fixtures are out

LIKE all supporters I was waiting for the new Premier League fixture list to come out.

Crystal Palace away is not too far to travel, but let’s hope our record of first away games will improve. It’s a while since we’ve won one.

But if we can have a better start than normal with Palace, Spurs and Burnley, it means that Ralph and the players are carrying on from where they left off. Good luck to the team.