I notice one of my ex-youth players at The Dell, Chris Wilder, who is managing at Halifax, has been linked with another Conference national club, Cambridge United.

This got me thinking.

Would you believe, nine of the current 92 league managers once played for Saints?

In the Premiership we have Mark Hughes and Iain Dowie at Blackburn and Charlton.

In the Championship we have Micky Adams (Coventry), Phil Parkinson (Colchester) and Jim Magilton (Ipswich).

We have two in League One - Martin Foyle at Port Vale and Alan Knill at Rotherham.

And Mark Wright (Chester) and Dennis Wise (Swindon) are managing in League Two.

In addition, we have Paul Tisdale recently appointed at Exeter, Glenn Cockerill at Woking, Ian Baird at Havant and Waterlooville and Nick Holmes proudly sitting on top of his Conference South division at Salisbury.

There are also lots of coaches and assistant managers around, particularly in our area at non-league level with Barry Blankley and Tommy Widdrington at Salisbury and David Hughes and Mark Dennis at Eastleigh.

I was reminded of the fact that ex-players of that generation still have to make a living - and not necessarily always in the game - when Mark Dennis asked me to do an early morning interview last week on The Saint radio.

He's still as infectious and bubbly as ever and has turned into an excellent presenter.

During the interview he still called me Gaffer and it would appear that now I was the best manager ever, although it didn't seem that way too often at the time when he played for me!

Seriously, he was very popular because of his whole-hearted approach when he played.

And I am always proud of the fact that a lot of the lads I had at The Dell still do a good job at whatever they have turned their hand to.

My three guests in the Ambassadors Lounge at last week's game against Plymouth were Brian O'Neil, such a terrific midfielder, and he was flanked by two of the all-time Saints greats, Dave Armstong and Steve Williams, who by the way has the tenth-highest number of appearances for the club.

I used to tell the youngsters that football was a short life.

They had to try to get a house and a car and if possible a bigger house and a second car while they could.

I also reminded them to ring their mother every week!

Steve took me too literally.

At the last count, apparently, he had about 90 properties, mainly in the Exeter and Plymouth areas, and he tells me he is now buying in Dubai. He also has a printing business.

Incidentally, Dave Armstrong had a similar interest as he is a director of a local company selling stationery etc.

So, good luck to all of these lads on the managerial ladder.