You can tell what time of year it is by the number of managers announcing their intentions all of a sudden. It's quite the week for a bit of turmoil and two of Europe's leading clubs won't start next season with the same chap whether they win their respective titles or not.
Eric Gerets said a few weeks ago that he'd not be hanging around in Marseille beyond the end of the year. Apparent frustration with the board hangs above him, but Gerets has never been a man to hang around long in any one job and, rather than initial reports linking him to the vacant Bayern job, he looks like he's off to Saudi Arabia. Presumably for the footballing challenge rather than pots of oil dollar. In Germany, Wolfsburg lead the way, but Felix Magath has revealed he's got itchy feet. Again, it's all about the folding. Any managerial job bar England looks good when there's a salary of €2.5m which is what Magath reportedly earns with the Volkswagen owned club. Not enough, apparently. Despite being his own sporting director, thereby giving himself unparalleled power in the German game, he's off to Schalke next season because they're going to double his wedge. You'd think Schalke would learn after last year's must-have gaffer, Fred Rutten, didn't even last a season after they pursued him over hill and down dale until he finally quit Twente for the sleeping Gelsenkirchen giant.
While Marseille moved quickly to recruit Didier Deschamps to take over from Gerets, the Bayern job remains vacant for next season and another legendary club from the north of Europe is now also without a big cheese. To be fair, he was jumped before he was pushed, but Marco van Basten quit Ajax today, saying that he didn't feel he could improve the team. It might be a good time to get out. After spunking a fortune on players like Miralem Sulejmani - €16.5m from Heerenveen when they could have had him for just the 0.5m part of that half a season previously - who have gloriously failed to do much of anything, they're in bother. Not making the Champions League this year leaves them with a huge problem. If they gamble again and don't make it - and there's little to suggest AZ, Twente and PSV won't be the sides to beat next season - and they could be the Dutch Leeds. And nobody wants that.
Back in France, Paul Le Guen looks set to be pushed out at PSG despite turning them from relegation fodder to one-time title hopefuls inside of a year. Their challenge just fell away in the last few weeks and a pitiful exit from the UEFA Cup probably made a few minds up that he wasn't the man to take them forward, but it looks harsh. His pre-season was disrupted when one of his big signings, Lilian Thuram, didn't arrive following a diagnosis of heart problems. That and Mateja Kezman's ongoing campaign to piss off everybody in European football has been in full flow all year, leaving Le Guen with few resources up front while at the back, Mickael Landreau has gone from international certainty to comedy stylist.
There's an inevitable managerial change at Real Madrid coming up as well - hey, it's spring - which leaves us with a few questions. Would anyone in their right mind want the Real Madrid job? Would anyone really want the Ajax job? Of all the vacancies, is Wolfsburg, with the near-limitless backing of VW, the pick? Are memories at the Parc des Princes really that short? Who can possibly do a worse job at Bayern than Klinsi? The answer to some, all or none of these will no doubt become clearer - or not - over the coming weeks.
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