The timing of the advert was rich in irony.

It was the morning after the night before and the blood was still fresh on the Newcastle carpet.

Sam Allardyce had just become the latest victim of the curse of the Toon and what was the radio plugging? A careers seminar at St James' Park!

Presumably the job package would include loyalty bonuses based on every week you survive and a punchbag for letting off steam every time the name Alan Shearer is muttered reverently within ear-shot.

The Geordies are now hunting their eighth manager in 11 years. No wonder the names on the office door are put up by blue tack - it leaves no marks when replacing.

Unlike the stains on the reputation of a proud football club once again being held up for public ridicule.

Yes, we've all had a bit of a giggle at Big Sam's bubble bursting. Never one too reluctant to come forward, he was trumpeting his qualities for the England job only a few months ago.

But the ego crash-landed around tea-time on Wednesday. Within two hours of drawing up the tactics for the next game against Manchester United, he was just another notch on the board-room bed post' beneath the likes of Gullit, Dalglish, Robson, Roeder and Souness.

And you had to feel a tad of sympathy because he never saw it coming. Nobody did.

The axe may have been hovering for a couple of months since Portsmouth rattled in four at a stunned St James' but, having survived the trickiest of FA Cup tests at Stoke on Sunday, there was no hint that the blade was about to fall.

But the real people we should feel sorry for are the 52,000 loyal fans who turn up week in, week out with the dream of seeing their team finally match its city's fierce ambitions.

Yet the boys in black and white have won nothing since the days of black and white. Most supporters were not alive when Newcastle last lifted the FA Cup in 1955.

And still they come in vast numbers, pumping in the funds that the club are happy to fritter away.

Once again, hopes will be raised when a new gaffer strolls into Toon.

But should they realistically expect much different from an appointment with the average lifespan of a kamikaze pilot?

Not for the first time, the genuine victims in all this are the long-suffering bunch who continue to line the pockets of their misguided masters.

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