IT acted as a pretty perfect metaphor for both doing the job I do and for being a football fan in general, when I looked on our website to see how the fans had reacted to the news Terry Butcher is the front runner for County.

You can check online yourselves, but the very first two comments beautifully summed up the quandary County’s board find themselves in.

I’m paraphrasing, but the first comment was that it is fantastic news, while the second basically opined that Butcher was sure to be an unmitigated disaster and should be avoided at all costs.

That caught my eye as being the perfect example of what we all already know, namely that you can’t please everyone whatever you do. If County give the job to Joe Mourinho, some will complain about his character and style of football. It was ever thus.

If it is to be Terry Butcher, I personally find that hard not to be excited about, both as a newspaper man and a sort-of County fan.

Having one of the most famous England captains of all time as manager will raise the profile of the club, undisputedly. Justin Edinburgh was a big name in Spurs-supporting households, but Butcher is a genuine top class international performer. As a player, he’s seen and done it all.

He does have a very mixed record as a manager, something much more of an issue in England than in any other country. We are loath to ever consider circumstances, to us a manager is simply a failure once he’s been sacked somewhere else.

Butcher was a failure for example, at his last job at Hibernian, though he was relegated with an inherited squad. The same thing happened to him with Inverness, where he remained, subsequently clinching immediate promotion and then unrivalled success in the top tier.

During that time, Butcher scoured the Conference transfer market, signing among others, Newport’s own Gary Warren.

And that kind of history should entirely negate the argument that Butcher, quote, “doesn’t have experience in League Two.”

As if experience in the division guarantees anything. Micky Adams and Gary Johnson are experienced in League Two, but that didn’t stop Tranmere and Cheltenham being relegated. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink wasn’t experienced in League Two, but that didn’t stop Burton getting promoted. Russ Wilcox is a thoroughbred in League Two, but has struggled at York and Ronnie Moore was damaged goods in the Football League in general, but he’s just clinched the greatest of Great Escapes.

There are no guarantees, but Butcher would have a head start on most.

There shouldn’t be a defender on County’s radar who wouldn’t want to sign for him and surely someone like Regan Poole would relish the opportunity to be managed by one of England’s best centre backs?

The Exiles will garner a higher profile, something to consider when it is fact that much criticism has been chucked at County’s board for a lack of ambition.

An ex-Premier League boss and international footballer set for the hotseat at Newport County. It’s a long way from the Hellenic League.