Keown, Shearer and Southgate have all become regular fixtures in football on TV though- it's an arena that entices ex pros in and rarely sees them make a successful return to the game. McCoist has been an exception, but in the SPL you only have to be the better of two teams to be a success. Dowie, Merson, and Kamara have all tried their hand at management and ended up preferring the easier ride of TV football- it keeps them in the public eye and under much less pressure. Merse in particular was dead set on becoming a manager in his book Hero and Villain, but now he seems happy to have people watching him watching football on a Saturday afternoon. After Shearer trying his hand at saving Newcastle two years ago, and Southgate's Middlesbrough experience, could you blame them for preferring the studio to the training pitch and dugout? Alan Hansen made it perfectly clear that management is not for him, and as a result he has one of the safest jobs in football.