After the predictable managerial merry-go-round which followed the conclusion to this year’s Premiership, perhaps the most surprising change came at Sheffield United, and I’m not talking about the departure of Neil Warnock.

The Blades went into the final few games of the season looking like they would survive. They seemed to have established an ability to grind out wins, and Warnock was as relaxed as ever. Then it all went disastrously wrong. Relegation from the Premiership is something that a club can recover from. Appointing Bryan Robson isn’t. As current President of the How Do They Still Get Work club of British Managers, he leads one of the least prestigious lists in domestic football.

His appointment was a mystery to anyone who has kept even half an eye on his managerial career, and ranks above Newcastle United’s astonishing appointment of the hapless Glenn Roeder after his dire reign at West Ham.

Robson has relegated Middlesbrough (despite a huge transfer budget), Bradford and West Brom. He nearly took Middlesbrough down for a second time before the intervention of Terry Venables as his assistant saw them scrape to safety. So, what was it Sheffield United saw in him? Blades Chairman Kevin McCabe says, "We believe Bryan is the manager who will blend the squad and lead us back to where we rightfully belong - in the Premiership - in a short space of time". Possibly so, but the odds on him keeping them there are surely huge given his dreadful record in the Premiership.

Peter Reid’s name is another that makes fans of managerless clubs shudder whenever he is linked with vacant managerial posts; he too is a fully paid up member of the HDTSGW club. Despite a good start with Manchester City and then Sunderland, in recent times his career has maintained a continual downward trajectory. The early years at Sunderland saw Reid win promotion to the Premiership, but he went on to assemble a team that, under Mick McCarthy, recorded the lowest points total in Premiership history (and then eclipsed that dubious honour with just 15 points from the 05/06 season).

Although Reid was sacked before Christmas 2002, it was his signings (such as the £10m splashed out on a strikeforce of Marcus Stewart and Tore Andre Flo) that laid the foundations for such a disastrous campaign, and it is possible to argue that had he remained at the helm for the duration of the season they may have finished the campaign with a lower points total than the 19 they eventually mustered. Reid then moved on to Leeds United where he accelerated their descent towards the lower reaches of the English game, before proving equally unsuccessful at Coventry where he quit, perhaps jumping before he was pushed.

Graeme Souness’s membership of the HDTSGW club is under consideration. One more failure would confirm his position though. Having won silverware with Rangers, he took Liverpool, one of the biggest clubs in the world, and turned them into First Division also-rans. In his final season in charge Liverpool finished in 8th place, their lowest position in thirty years. Absurd to conceive of even now, let alone at a time when they had only just fallen from the top of the European tree.

Souness’ stock rose a little after a successful spell at Galatasaray, but he then only lasted a season at Southampton. At Torino in Italy he didn't even last that long before he was sacked; little more than three months was all it took. With four abject failures out of six managerial positions (including two trophy-less seasons at Benfica), it was surprising when Blackburn took a gamble and offered him the manager’s job. He earned them promotion back to the Premiership in his first season, albeit with the kind of money that should all but guarantee success in the second tier of English football. He then failed miserably at Newcastle, where so many others have, err, failed miserably. Not that he’d have ever admitted it though. An endless succession of bad refereeing decisions (it’s incredible how literally every team in the Premiership is hard done by isn’t it?) and unfortunate injuries conspired against Souness, rather than his own ineptitude. Apparently.

More than anything, Bryan Robson’s appointment demonstrates the misguided belief among many in the game that a great player is more likely to make a great manager. If you look to the top of the table, and to the examples of Mourinho and Wenger, it is clear that this is a myth. Would Robson have been granted so many chances to show his poor management skills had he been a mediocre footballer? I somehow doubt it.