EVERYONE will obviously hope Glenn Roeder recovers soon but it has lead to one of the strangest occurrences this season writes Mick Jones

Am I seeing things or has Trevor 'Mr Excitement' Brooking really been given the job of keeping West Ham up?

Sometimes, a blood and thunder manager isn't what you need to keep you up as Mick McCarthy showed at Sunderland. That said, you must need a little bit more than a man who makes 'A Book at Bedtime' seem nerve-wracking.

Can you imagine his team talks? You wouldn't remember anything after the first 30 seconds. At least they'd go out on the pitch feeling refreshed after forty winks.

What will he tell them? He hardly ever seems to make his mind up about anything and he hates saying anything controversial. From what we can gather, he's set the team a target of three wins from three games. I bet that took ages to figure out as an objective.

You'd have a great time with him trying to make his mind up. First he'd want Cole to push on, then he'd decide he could do with him staying deep; finally he wants him to get into the box whenever he can but he's not to go down too easily. It wouldn't do to be trying to con the ref. If ever a man was too nice to be a manager it's him.

I shouldn't take the mickey too much, though. At least he's having a go and helping out where he's needed. Think about the other old heroes who could have helped their clubs out with their expertise.

Gary Linker could surely have done more to stop Leicester going down and I'm sure Man City must have had someone big enough to help them out when they've struggled.

Where has Alan Hansen ever been when Liverpool have struggled? When Houllier was ill, did he offer to help? Not a chance. He left them to struggle rather than offer his obvious genius to the back room staff.

Not for him the offer to get Liverpool looking like a side that'd have the tiniest chance of winning a proper major trophy. He'd rather let them end up as a side that used to be famous, like Spurs.

For someone who obviously knows so much and is willing to spout it at every opportunity, his desire to put his money where his mouth is has been "very, very poor."