BIG YELLOW TAXI..

Back now from my week in Cornwall (more on that story later) and it seems that, if anything, the world has become even more mad whilst I`ve been away.  But before getting in to all the madness that surrounds us, let me first comment on an aspect of arguably the most important issue facing us today which is, of course, football.   And today once again I`m reminded of Joni Mitchell`s Big Yellow Taxi and it`s immortal truism, "Don`t it always seem to go that you don`t know what you`ve got `til it`s gone."

Yesterday, the basket case that is Plymouth Argyle, `parted company` with manager Peter Reid, pictured above in one of his lighter moments in recent months.   Now, Peter Reid is a football man of considerable substance - he played with enormous distinction for Bolton Wanderers, Everton, Queens Park Rangers, Manchester City, even Southampton.   He was capped 13 times for England.   He`s an FA Cup winner, twice League Championship winner, European Cup Winners Cup winner and a former PFA Player of the Year.   As a manager, he has taken charge of Manchester City, Sunderland, England Under-21s, Leeds United, Coventry, Thailand and, of course, the Argyle.  He has been PFA Manager of the Year and twice awarded the Manager of the Month.

So he`s no mug.   Now, getting on for two years ago, he took the reins at Plymouth who, at the time, were beginning to struggle both on and off the field.  Financial pressures leading to the club going into Administration resulting in successive relegations from the Championship and League One, now see the club at the foot of League Two.  Attempts to find a buyer for the club have been protracted and, as yet, fruitless.   The players and staff have not been paid in full for almost a year and it`s a measure of Peter Reid`s commitment and character that he sold his 1986 FA Cup final runners-up medal in order to help pay staff as well as paying  the club’s heating bill with his own money when financial troubles first hit Home Park.

In a statement issued yesterday, the inevitability that is Argyle Chairman Peter Ridsdale said,  "Peter leaves with our unreserved thanks for his contribution in helping keep the club alive during this turbulent period and he leaves with our very best wishes for the future."   Quite so.   So why am I left with the feeling that Peter Reid is well out of it  and that Peter Ridsdale should listen very carefully to what Joni Mitchell had to say?