Neil McCann’s appointment as Dundee FC manager, when it seemed that Jack Ross was a shoo in as the new boss, may have looked a bit like a keystone cops movie from the outside: but in football things are seldom straightforward, and the search for a new manager is one which is full of pitfalls ranging from leaked stories to outright rejection.
Despite trying to appear as though they are in charge, the directors and chairmen at most clubs are usually at the mercy of forces beyond their control in these matters.
In situations like these the conditions are ideal for wanted men to increase the money on offer to them, both at the club wanting to hire them, and at the club wanting to keep them.
That’s how the business works.
It also has a knock on effect throughout the game, when managers at other clubs hear of increased wage packets for others, and start asking their own chairmen for a lift in their remuneration.
A word in the ear from a successful manager to a few favoured journalists that another club is interested in acquiring his services to replace their outgoing manager, and a prompt increase in the bank balance usually follows, along with an extension to the current contract.
Football is a mercenary business.
I have never met anyone in the game embarrassed to talk about money.
Those fans who somehow think of the game as being some kind of bastion of shared socialist values would be in for a very rude awakening if they saw deals being done.
The game is unashamedly capitalist: bright red in tooth and claw. And the only currency which counts in signing players and managers, is hard cash: the more the merrier.
Dundee have secured as manager the man who saved them from potentially dropping into the Championship, and he has the opportunity to push the Dark Blues towards a position in the top six, which is where they should be with the crowds and financial backing available to them.
I wrote in this column in 2015 that Dundee could become the number one club in the city.
As things stand they currently are, and could be for a long time, if McCann and the American owners get it right on the pitch and off it.
Their ambitions will become clearer once the first few signings have been made. That will indicate how serious the Dens board is.
A repeat of last year’s scramble to avoid relegation is unacceptable and would squander a great chance to firmly cement themselves as a top flight club.
* Tiger Woods’ fall from grace has been dramatic.
An injury-ravaged recent past and now distressing pictures of him trying to walk a white line to satisfy police officers that he was fit to drive, followed by a grim looking mug shot, shows that sporting greatness and wealth are no protection from the trials and tribulations of life.
Woods has been a great ambassador for golf, but it might be kinder now for both he and the sport if he put the clubs away for keeps.
