No quick fix for the saviour

Perhaps in future Mr Lowe could insist on a further clause dictating that any exit must be seen to take a week or two, in order to create a polite illusion of torn loyalties.

Still, you can't blame Mr Lowe, can you? After all, they like to do things right at Southampton. Fairness is their very watchword. Oh yes. Just ask David Jones.

But then club chairmen are not famed for their clarity of recall. On the very morning of Saturday's Premiership encounter, Sir Alan Sugar considered it his priority to describe George Graham in terms which confirmed that Sugar is not a class act. Furthermore, if the ex-Spurs chairman was as he claimed ''mugged'' into hiring Graham - although details of how this subterfuge was achieved were mysteriously absent - surely it casts Sugar less as the helpless victim than merely gullible.

And what of Hoddle himself? The very sunshine came out to greet him as he took his seat in the Arsenal stand, but by the final whistle a tiresome drizzle was blowing into his face, obliging him to put his winter coat back on. If anything made it clear that the dawning of springtime for Spurs is some seasons away, this unedifying two-goal defeat was enough.

Whether the so-called Messiah can do the trick for Tottenham remains to be seen. After all, his namesake of 2,000 years ago had significantly better existing resources to call upon - at least he had some loaves and fishes to work with before he fed the five thousand. If ENIC really are prepared to make £50 million available to Hoddle, some observers will con-With or without money to buy players, not everyone is convinced his managerial credentials are so dazzling. It was difficult not to smile on hearing Darren Anderton's enthusiasm for his new manager, on the specific basis that when Hoddle was England coach he selected Anderton ahead of David Beckham for the first match of France 98. What a glittering recommendation.

It is worth pondering that selection decision anew for Hoddle's utter failure to articulate his motive to Beckham, making mincemeat of the player's confidence in the process. For Spurs' sake, it is to be hoped Hoddle has honed his man-management skills since then. Those who actually read his World Cup diary recall it chiefly not for the notorious betrayal of trust, but for its relentlessly smug author, who heaped praise upon himself while blaming his players for his team's failure. Delightful.

It is said Hoddle will pocket the £500,000 bonus which would have been Graham's if Spurs win the Cup, but on Saturday's evidence he would be unwise to start planning how he will spend the dough just yet. As the Highbury faithful so poetically put it: ''We beat the scum.'' If the Messiah turns matters around before next Sunday, then the Old Trafford crowd should expect a guest appearance from Lazarus himself.