Once upon a time, it used to be said that sport is the last refuge for those who find it impossible to idle.  Then there is the notion that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.   

Take your pick, but on today of all days I think I might seek refuge from the noise, the sound, the fury and the scandalous pantomime that will be played out in parliament and, despite being anything but idle, I will once again look to the world of sport to find my refuge.

And there`s plenty to fall back on especially in the fol-de-rols of football management.   Today we learn that Huddersfield manager, David Wagner, has left the club `by mutual consent.`  A well worn turn of phrase which usually means that the manager has been sacked, however in Wagner`s case it does appear to have been a genuinely mutual agreement as he has done well by the club and, suffering from the stresses of managing in the Premier League, it is only right that the club has done well by him.   And if Huddersfield fans need any consolation, it can surely be found in the report that `Big` Sam Allardyce, who used to ply his trade for the club as a clogging centre back, is not inclined to apply for the vacancy.

Closer to home and in acknowledgement of my neighbour`s devotion to his beloved Gillingham, I was impressed with their `stunning` (there`s no other word for it) FA Cup defeat of Premier League Cardiff City and the recent upturn in their league performances.  Now, of course, football has a habit of producing irony and coincidence in equal measure, so perhaps it was inevitable that Gillingham`s reward for beating Cardiff was to draw Swansea City away in the next round.   Not only a visit to Wales but also a return to his home city for Gills` manager Steve Lovell.  

The football equivalent of the antics in parliament is, of course, the ongoing soap opera that is Manchester United.  Okay, they finally had the sense to get rid of serial egotist Jose Morinho only to pinch Molde`s manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, on loan for the rest of the season.  You just know that the Norwegian minnows are going to get screwed by the assumed entitlement of the sharks of Old Trafford.

As for Southampton, under our new manager Ralph Rabbithutch the team seems to go from strength to strength culminating in an heroic win away last Saturday at Leicester City despite being down to ten men for most of the game.  There is real hope of survival now that the dizzy heights of 16th in the table have been reached and the relegation zone has faded into the background albeit by one solitary point.  No matter, the open top bus is revving up.

Football management is a broad church, inhabited by a wide range of disparate characters, each with his own idea of how to go about things in an unrelenting battle to achieve what might pass for approval.   A bit like parliament really - truly  the last refuge for the scoundrel, the duplicitous and the misguided ?