Out of interest can anyone tell me who are the DoF's at the other prem clubs and what their qualifications are? Can anyone tell me what each club expects their DoF's to do? Thanks in anticipation.

It always amuses me that the Freedman Out! thread on the Bolton Wanders' Fans forum reached a monstrous 269 pages.

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He has clearly only secured the role because of his CPFC links, but to be fair he is a net contributor to the club - a rarity.

Surely judged on his achievements at Bolton, then Nottingham Forest, he fails to warrant senior appointment at a Premier League club.

If it helps, I spent some time with Dougie Freedman a few years back. We were on the same coaching course, he had just taken on the reserves at Palace (I think) having been mentored by Warnock.

Freedman came across as a polite but reserved man. Happy to talk frankly about football when approached, but certainly not one for the pub or the limelight. Even considering that many of the class didn't know each other, I was still surprised at how distant he seemed. Plenty of big names in our class relaxed and thawed out, but Dougie remained slightly detached. He was meticulous and very professional, and though he loved football he was at pains to avoid any of the celebrity side of it, and seemed to be there exclusively for the qualification rather than to make friends with anyone. I found professional footballers to be a nice bunch, but it is a bit of a closed shop / old pals network sort of gig, so Freedman stood out as bit by showing no interest in forming contacts or social climbing.

His attitude to being a Palace legend sort of summed him up. He was very appreciative of what palace had given him, and proud of what he had given back, but these seemed like professional achievements more than emotional ones. He lived in Essex rather than South London partly because he wasn’t comfortable with being a ‘legend’ as he went about his daily business. When he became manager I think a lot of us saw a continuation of Dougie the player, this brilliant, skilful, imaginative goalscorer who gave Palace so many highlights and was so loved for it, and couldn’t accept that he could break that bond to go to Bolton. In actual fact, whether as a player or a manager I think we are talking about a very professional man rather than an emotional one. He played for and managed us because we were his best employment option, gave us full value for money and then some every time, and that’s doubtless what he’ll be doing this time round.

He’s a serious guy, will be here for serious reasons. It's irrelevant that he played here, managed here, and left here before.

The general job description of a DoF is to be snidey and sneery about everything a football manager does, watching from up high above them in the stands on a match day. Secondly, always be looking to stab the manager in the back and jump in their warm dugout, after you've manipulated their demise.