THE appointment of Lee Clark as Blackpool manager was another example of the football world’s magic managerial roundabout.

The process has few rules and makes little sense.

Managers only need to remember two basic concepts: Getting on the roundabout is difficult, but once on it success rates are rarely taken into account when making appointments, and the longer you spend off the roundabout the harder it is to get back on.

Clark is a great example.

The former Newcastle and Fulham midfielder showed a good deal of promise when he first stepped into management at Huddersfield before results began to drift and he was eventually sacked.

Birmingham immediately gave him a second chance to prove his credentials.

That opportunity ended last month, with the Blues languishing in 21st place in the Championship, one point above the drop zone, with only one home league win in more than a year.

Clark left the hotseat, after two years, with Birmingham having won only 33 of their 116 games under his guidance.

Yet 10 days later he was unveiled at Bloomfield Road.

It is fair to say the Geordie has had plenty of nonsense to deal with during his tenure at St Andrew’s, with owner Carson Yeung jailed for money laundering.

His hands were tied to a certain extent, which is possibly what attracted Blackpool owner Owen Oyston.

A succession of Blackpool managers have been forced to work under constraints – ranging from little or no finances to the owner’s refusal to pay agent’s fees in transfer deals.

But in the world of the magic roundabout, Oyston and Clark make the perfect couple.

Oyston wants a manager to work miracles to lift the ailing club off the bottom of the Championship, so he plumps for a man who has been tried, tested and found wanting in the past.

It seems Clark, who must have left Birmingham acutely aware he would not be afforded too many more chances, has jumped at the first offer of a job.

Many other out-of-work managers, whose stock was considerably higher than the new Blackpool boss, will have balked at the offer, as the potential for failure seems too high.

But Clark may have twigged that having failure on your CV is not as big a problem on the magic roundabout as the time you have spent out of the game.

Just ask Alan Curbishley, who enjoyed 15 successful years at Charlton but was then cast into the management wilderness after taking West Ham to court for constructive dismissal.

The time Curbishley spent fighting the case effectively sounded his career death knell - the moral of the story being that football chairmen, unlike elephants, seem to find it very easy to forget.