Nottingham Forest: The Strange Case Of Steve McClaren

The rollercoaster managerial life of Steve McClaren took another lurch downwards on Sunday when he resigned from his post at Nottingham Forest after a poor run of results - and more significantly, after it appeared the players weren't putting in their shift for the manager.

What to make of McClaren's career? For some he will always be a man promoted above his station who lost the plot - a great number two under Sir Alex Ferguson but lacking the ability to be a strong number one.

But take the England job out of the equation and we have a man who won the league title in Holland with a club that can't match the Dutch 'Big Three' in support and financial clout. And also the man who led Middlesbrough to a Carling Cup win and all the way to a UEFA Cup Final. Not exactly the CV of a loser.

Set against these achievements has to be this woeful period at Nottingham Forest and his moderate performance in the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg. Is he a good manager or a bad one? In Italy when coaches fail they are often reappointed within no time; failure is relative. In England it seems if you don't do the business just once you are a has-been.

Perhaps the real issue with McClaren is that he seems downright eccentric at times. He will always be the 'wally with the brolly' for some, after he chose to cover himself on the touchline with a huge one at Wembley.

This is also the man who started speaking English with a Dutch accent when he first went to Holland and who acquired some expensive dental work when he became England boss.

In his favour , the former Derby man is also very approachable in interview - almost too earnest and eager to please at times .Some people just don't have gravitas - that quality that makes a person respected and approached with a certain wariness. Calling your players JT, Wazza and Stevie G doesn't add to the impression of authority.

Ferguson, Wenger and Dalglish all have it - so does Mourinho in his own way. It often comes from their aggressive responses to being questioned. These guys aren't always right but try getting them to admit it.

McClaren always appears to be on the verge of almost agreeing with his critics. Some of his analysis is painfully honest - and more importantly he has a habit of tinkering with his team formations, which can look like indecision.

In his most recent Forest games there was the sudden use of a 3-5-2 system again, combined with decisions to watch games from unusual positions and finally doing a 'Phil Brown' and sending his players out early for the second half to demonstrate his anger with their performance.

As Brown found out, even after unacceptable performances, hanging your players out to dry is rarely the way to improve the spirit in the dressing room.

Steve McClaren does seem to have been unlucky at Forest. At the very least the chairman and manager have had a 'misunderstanding' about how much money is available to revamp the squad but that doesn't account for just how lethargic the current group have become.

So where will he go now? The period at Twente appeared to have successfully resurrected McClaren's reputation but another job in England at Premier or Championship level looks unlikely at the moment.