THEY moan and groan about the job but football managers just cannot leave it alone.

Terry Venables' return to a life he previously insisted he had left behind is just the latest evidence that once a manager always a manager.

Those who run major clubs are the privileged few but you'd never think it to listen to them.

They complain they work every hour God sends, their families never see them, their directors and supporters are football nitwits who just make their job tougher, the media deserve to be either ignored or abused and referees were put on earth to deliberately get crucial decisions wrong.

If David O'Leary was ever happy at Leeds he kept it a secret, Gordon Strachan is locked in a permanently annoyed state, Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger are engaged in a miserable competition which Glenn Hoddle doesn't bother entering any more after winning it so often in the past.

So why do they do it? Well, the seven-figure salary, house, car and free flights make it worthwhile but most of them need the money less than the personal fulfilment it gives them.

Venables had assured he was through with management. He had done it all before and had no intention of returning, happy with his television punditry and outside business interests. Yet here he is back at work with Leeds United where he will encounter nothing but hassle from every angle.

There is no doubt he meant it at the time but he reckoned without the irresistible pull of the job. He is not the first to backtrack on his intention to quit and he won't be the last.

Ferguson's promise that he would be quitting at the end of last season fell by the wayside when he weighed up the pros of being the manager of the third biggest club in the world with the cons of nobody paying him any attention anymore.

Graham Taylor's retirement from the game lasted a matter of months before he was back in the hot seat with Aston Villa and not even the stress of the job almost killing him could force Gerard Houllier to turn his back on the game.

They should all take a leaf out of Bobby Robson's book. Rather than moaning about his lot he never misses an opportunity to admit he is in the best job in the world - apart from playing - and he has always been too wise to delude himself that he could retire.