WHEN Sheffield United chairman Kevin McCabe claimed that Bryan Robson was "the guy with the most knowledge of how to get us out of this division" on Tuesday, it was impossible not to recall the fateful words of Lawrie McMenemy when he was appointed Sunderland manager in 1985.

At the time, McMenemy promised to take recently-relegated Sunderland out of the Second Division and, by the time he was sacked in March 1987, he had pretty much been as good as his word.

Two months after McMenemy departed, Sunderland were indeed out of the Second Division. The only problem, of course, was that their new home was in Division Three.

Robson made a similar pledge on Tuesday, promising to take Sheffield United straight out of their new home in the Championship, and while League One is an unlikely destination for the Blades, the history books suggest that Robson has more chance of leading his new employers down the league ladder than up it.

Previously demoted at Middlesbrough, West Bromwich Albion and Bradford City, English football's one-time Captain Marvel has become something of a relegation specialist, yet one of the biggest clubs in the country has still been willing to commit its future to his hands.

Sheffield United's blindness to the seemingly obvious has hardly gone down well with the club's fans, but McCabe's rush to recruit Robson is merely the latest in a long line of awful appointments that have had more to do with reputation and a 'jobs-for-the-boys' mentality than actual managerial achievements.

Take Peter Reid for example - sacked at Manchester City, appointed at Sunderland, sacked at Sunderland, appointed at Leeds, sacked at Leeds, appointed at Coventry. Having left Coventry by mutual consent in January 2005, it can only be a matter of time before the phone starts to ring again.

Graeme Souness, Dave Bassett and Joe Royle have all been cut similar slack in the past - repeated failures who are repeatedly linked with managerial vacancies as soon as they arise.

Surely a club like Sheffield United should have been looking at up-and-coming talent from the lower leagues.

The likes of Nigel Adkins (Scunthorpe), Simon Grayson (Blackpool) and Paul Trollope (Bristol Rovers) have all achieved great things this season, but their promise and potential has been overlooked in favour of Robson's supposedly superior CV.

Well, Robson's CV might be superior in terms of length and number of clubs managed.

But as McCabe could become acutely aware next season, a knowledge of how to get teams out of a certain division can be construed as a handicap if the experience has largely been in a downward direction.