WHO on earth would want to be a football manager - loads of people it would appear.

On Saturday Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier had emergency heart surgery.

On Monday Birmingham's Trevor Francis and Leyton Orient's Tommy Taylor became the 13th and 14th managers to part company with their clubs just two months into the new season.

The day before West Ham boss Glenn Roeder took seven more steps towards the exit with the hammering at Ewood Park.

And yet every time there is a managerial vacancy at a club the postman needs to be on iron supplements in order to carry all the applications.

It was in June 1998 that Stan Ternent left Bury to come to Turf Moor and amazingly, despite the fact he has been in charge for just over three years, he is already 16th in the list of longest serving managers in the country.

I have got food in the back of my fridge that has lasted longer than some managers.

Francis, Taylor, Jim Smith, Gordon Strachan and Brian Flynn all started the season ahead of Stan in terms of longevity. All have now bitten the dust.

But even the veteran Smith wants to stay in the game as a boss having turned down the position of director of football at Derby.

Clarets boss Ternent's appetite for the game is certainly undiminished and at the age of 55 his ambition burns brightly.

At St James' Park there is Bobby Robson, a man well past retirement age, determined to carry on for a bit longer.

Why is the post of football league manager such a coveted title? Why are the 92 men in charge at the start of each season envied by the hundreds of wannabe bosses?

After all with the likes of Joe Kinnear, Graeme Souness and Barry Fry around, it is not as if Houllier's problems are the first.

In may ways the job is fantastic. If you are a football man what better way to spend your week than out on the training ground, doing what you love.

The pressures are great but if they were not doing that how would they cope with the stresses and strains that happen in other walks of life.

Houllier has grabbed the headlines because he is famous but it is stone cold certain that in offices and homes across the country today other people, like you and me, will be complaining of chest pains, rushed to hospital, some requiring surgery.

The stresses and strains are different. It might be related to problems paying the mortgage, fear of losing a job, worries over responsibilities at work.

That is not to belittle what happened to Houllier, merely to put it in context.