FAN'S OPINION: who will the new manager be to steer the Blues from the rocks?

It's a first defeat for Guy Branston as temporary manager. We went to Luton rather more in hope than expectation. As it was, the performance could be described as battling or workmanlike, but it still yielded no points.
Guy Branston (left), who is in temporary charge at Chesterfield, and Jack Lester, who is among the fans' leading choices to become the new manager.Guy Branston (left), who is in temporary charge at Chesterfield, and Jack Lester, who is among the fans' leading choices to become the new manager.
Guy Branston (left), who is in temporary charge at Chesterfield, and Jack Lester, who is among the fans' leading choices to become the new manager.

Setting the team up as a 4-4-2 made sense because the first thing we need to be is hard to beat. Luton were the better team on the day, though, in all fairness. This now means that since Paul Cook left the club in 2015, Chesterfield have won only 30 matches.

On to the inevitable Groundhog-day question of who is going to be the next manager to try and steer the Blues away from the rocks. Opinion on the message boards has been, shall we say, lively, ranging from wild optimism to the inevitable comments that no-one could possibly do a good job whist the current regime is in charge. And since no-one in their right mind would pay £10 million for a team staring at relegation from the Football League, that’s not going to change.

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Seeing as it’s been mentioned that there’s no money in the betting market, anyone having a small wager can drastically alter the guessing game on various websites. This week, Chris Turner’s name was in the Sky Bet top ten to take over. I can only assume that some joker at the club raided the petty-cash drawer and put a fifty pence bet on our previous chief exec to lead us to the sunny uplands of third from bottom of League Two.

Jack Lester’s name keeps topping the list, and fans are divided between those who think he’s doing a great job with the youngsters at Nottingham Forest (and he obviously has potential) to those who think that he would tarnish his reputation by joining the circus at the Proact.

Agents and managers tend to use such situations merely to alert others in the football industry that they are seeking work, and Fabrizio Ravanelli allegedly

throwing his hat into the ring makes for ridiculous reading. Personally, I’d hope for someone with experience, such as Chris Powell or Steve Cotterill, but Chesterfield’s reputation behind the scenes amongst potential candidates is thought to be on the low side of awful, so I’d be surprised if either of those ex-managers was tempted.

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The selection process is going to be interesting as Guy Branston will be helping the current board to choose the new boss. This means that Guy would then be working under the man whom he helped select. What if Branston were to scout players that the new manager did not rate? Surely some conflict of interest would occur?

We live in interesting times. I wish we didn’t.