Allen Not The Key

National League side Eastleigh have made no secret of their desire to follow the likes of Fleetwood Town into the Football League by throwing money at the best players and managers.

However the club is now searching for its fourth manager of the season after dispensing with Martin Allen after just two wins, 14 matches, and 84 days. Experienced National League watchers have suggested that the contract Allen was on was so financially rewarding that the 51 year old may never need to work again after his dismissal.

Spitfires owner Stewart Donald, an insurance tycoon and admitted Oxford United fan (and part shareholder), has rebuilt the ground, funded a mass of expensive signings, and opened up matches to free admission to boost attendances for a side that has quadrupled its average attendance over the past five years.

The club say the final straw was the latest free admission game attracting just 2,345 supporters when they usually attracted nearly double that for past offers. Some have blamed Allen's football - a rather industrial affair - though his record of never having won a home match for the club probably also contributed.

Allen, for his part, has always been a Marmite character to football fans. Most at home at Barnet, where he has had four separate stints in charge, he has been variously accused of a variety of actions during nights out and on touchlines that would normally see a person in front of a court. Most of them he has vehemently denied, and his reputation is more the stuff of pub talk than actual fact - even if he retains his "Mad Dog" nickname.

Eastleigh, and Donald, are fast learning that - like Dale Vince at Forest Green - bought success isn't that easy in football. Allen saw 13 players arrive in his 84 days, and 19 leave. One of those, Eastleigh stalwart Michael Green, has returned to the club within hours of Allen's dismissal less than two weeks after his departure.

The idea that a fixed amount of money can buy a fixed amount of success is not something that applies to the football world.