When I heard the news last Friday that George Graham had been sacked by Spurs I was almost as surprised as I was when I found that Terry Wogan was Irish.

Graham's exit from White Hart Lane has been a foregone conclusion since the moment Alan Sugar announced that he was quitting Tottenham.

So who's next for what is fast becoming one of soccer's most notorious poisoned chalices?

Events have moved on since the weekend to the point that I think that it's almost turning into an old style communist election where there is just one candidate.

Spurs say they won't appoint till the summer whilst red-hot favourite Glenn Hoddle, speaking through his agent Dennis Roach, stays mysteriously tight-lipped.

Needless to say Hoddle will be installed at the Lane before the fixtures come out, but unless there is Starsky and Hutch-like U-turn from new owners ENIC, he'll be like his predecessors and fail miserably.

Spurs last won the league 40 years go, and contrary to what their fans believe they are not a big club anymore. Admittedly, when the TV deal was carved up, they were one of the so-called big five, but now they struggle even to make into the top ten.

If and when Hoddle goes, who will be in the Saints dugout come August when their new stadium is in use?

Kevin Keegan is a name which has bandied around the Dell, but I'd be very surprised if Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe would even consider the former England boss.

Everybody knows that Keegan is a confirmed bottler.

You can imagine the scenario now: December 2001, Saints in the relegation zone, Keegan takes a quick trip to the cashpoint, checks his bank balance, realises he doesn't need the hassle and promptly walks away!

They reckon that real talent always skips a generation so needless to say my father can write a bit!

However that is certainly not the case in the Geard household. Nearly 25 years after his father Glen walked through the doors at the Goldstone as an apprentice young Matthew Geard has been given the chance to embark on a football career with the Albion.

Alan Mullery didn't help Glen's case all those years ago when he stated that 'Glen Geard will play for England one day', and Glen would be the first to admit that he was probably his own worst enemy when it came to his time at the club.

But the fact that he can freely admit where he went wrong bodes well for the future of young Matt. Let's hope he won't make the same mistakes as his dad and that in five years time he's playing out for the Albion in Division One in a new stadium.

One of the many advantages of a promotion run in is that a club's attendance rise as all the 'butterfly' supporters come out of the woodwork.

But this is apparently not the case in Division Three. Last Saturday Chesterfield could only muster 4,338 (well, that was the gate figure they declared) whilst the free-spending Welsh millionaires of Cardiff only attracted 7,130.

Now I know that's more than the Albion's capacity, but how many tickets could Brighton have sold for this week's Chesterfield match? Considerably more than the combined attendances of our two nearest rivals.

As regards Saturday, a number of Albion fans have designated it a 'Brown Envelope Day', which I think is a cracking idea.

I received a communication last week from my good friends at the tax office and have kept the envelope so I can wave it along with the rest of the crowd as Chesterfield make their way out onto the pitch.