BY NAMING joint-managers, City have brought back a style that had gone out of fashion.

They will also have to buck the trend – but then Mark Trueman and Conor Sellars have been doing that from day one.

There were several high-profile hot-seat pairings in the early days of the Premier League – but hardly any since the turn of the century.

The idea of delegating the power equally is something that few clubs have tried – and fewer have succeeded.

There are some former City bosses, though, who have been included in managerial double acts.

Colin Todd and Roy McFarland re-established their partnership from Derby’s title-winning defence of the 1970s when they were appointed in joint charge by Bolton in 1995.

But Wanderers had gained just 10 points from 22 games to sit rock bottom of the top flight at the turn of the year and McFarland was sacked.

Todd stayed on and managed Bolton back to an instant promotion the following season – only to then go down again.

Bryan Robson found an uncomfortable alliance with Terry Venables in the Middlesbrough dug-out in 2000-2001.

While Robson’s future club were sinking without trace from the Premier League, Boro clawed their way from last to the relative comfort of 14th.

Robson himself had asked for help, although it ended with Venables calling most of the shots in an uneasy situation. But it did get the job done.

A decade earlier, Venables had been the power behind the throne at Spurs when they briefly stuck Ray Clemence and Doug Livermore together.

Liverpool are the biggest name to have gone down the co-manager route when Roy Evans was joined at the helm by Gerard Houllier in 1998. It proved a short-lived experiment.

The Anfield board were uncomfortable with pushing out Evans after 33 years of loyal service. But after a difficult four months being led by two bosses with contrasting styles of management, he left by a genuine mutual consent.

“It was the joint management situation which was more of a problem for the players, the staff and the media,” said Houllier at the time.

The longest-running double act was at Charlton with a four-year marriage of convenience between Alan Curbishley and Steve Gritt.

Both had applied for the Valley vacancy in the summer of 1991 and the club couldn’t decide who to pick.

City faced a similar call 12 years later when they opted for Robson over Todd, who stayed as his assistant before taking the post after the second administration at the end of that season.

But Charlton went with both in charge and just missed out on a play-off in their first year.

That was as good as it got, though, as they slipped into mid-table nothingness and Gritt was eventually sacked after four seasons. Curbishley would lead them until 2006.

South London neighbours Millwall followed suit in 1998 when owner Theo Paphitis went with popular former players Keith Stevens and Alan McLeary.

Stevens started out as the boss with McLeary number two and steered the Lions to Wembley in the Auto Windscreens Shield final – that year’s version of the Football League Trophy.

McLeary was promoted alongside his old team-mate the following season where Millwall missed out in the play-offs. A very poor start to their third season saw both sacked in September.

The most profitable pairing was at Coventry.

Facing the drop from the old First Division in 1986, the Sky Blues turned to John Sillett and George Curtis for some last-gasp heroics.

They delivered with two wins from the final three games to stay up.

Sillett’s tactics combined with the organisational skills of Curtis rejuvenated Coventry and a year later the club enjoyed their finest hour by beating Tottenham at Wembley to lift the FA Cup.

Curtis bowed out straight after, while Sillett oversaw a great period before leaving in November 1990.

They are the stand-out overachievers in a list of double acts that have generally turned out more like the Krankies than Morecambe and Wise.

But who would have expected anything when Trueman and Sellars were first given the nod on a caretaker basis for that Tuesday night in Crawley in mid-December?

Or who could have possibly imagined that City would lose only one of the 11 games in their current reign while reeling in a whopping 24 points?

The young duo have astounded all expectations up to now – so why should they not go on and succeed where other duos have failed?

That is the next challenge facing this exciting appointment.