For the rest of the time we're allies pooling our ideas

For the rest of the time we're allies, pooling our ideas."There are certainly more sides who could conceivably win the First Division than there are in Super League.Hull, at home to Swinton tomorrow, have recruited well from Australia, even if their new name - the Sharks - ignores the more obvious attractions of the Hull Herrings or Haddocks.Huddersfield, who start their season against Whitehaven, have the facilities and the resources, while Keighley - away to Workington - continue to defy predictions that their bubble has burst. Featherstone take on Hull KR with what looks like one of the strongest squads in the division, but Wakefield - at home to Dewsbury -are possible dark horses.The First Division clubs and the top nine in Division Two are to contest a new play-off competition in late July.. A look under the heading Blackburn Rovers in the Rothmans Football Yearbooks for the seasons 1991-92 and '92-93 is interesting. In the first, Tony Parkes is listed as assistant manager; in the second his name appears nowhere.

Kenny Dalglish, Ray Harford, Asa Hartford, the list goes on, Parkes seemingly entering into a twilight world populated by football's forgotten many. In reality, Parkes had not disappeared and was ahead of Hartford in the blue-and-white hierarchy - even if you would not know it from the black- and-white print. The message, nevertheless, is loud and unyielding: the permanence of a job in football is like the proverbial verbal contract, not worth the paper it is written on. A new manager's broom frequently sweeps away people who deserve better, as Tony Book discovered at Manchester City. Parkes has been at Blackburn for 26 years but there is no guarantee he will make it to a 27th even if he could claim, with justification, to be the most successful caretaker manager ever. When Roy Hodgson arrives from Internazionale in the summer, it might signal his leaving.Yet meet Parkes now and he exudes the same outward nonchalance about his future that has marked his relaxed spell in charge of Blackburn since Ray Harford resigned last October. "Come into the caretaker manager's office," he says, knowing no room of that name exists.

As he walked past the door he pointed to the place where the prefix should go ahead of the word "manager".He said, until his face matched the blue of his club's shirts, that he did not want the job on a permanent basis and now, with Hodgson due from Italy, his wish has been granted. It could be an abdication of responsibility or an acute perception of his limitations, but where Parkes goes now is anyone's guess. Certainly it is not within his compass."I'm sure the club, the board, the chairman and the owner would want me to stay," he said "They've actually told me that. But my answer is: `It isn't up to you, it's up to the new manager'. You can't expect a man to come into a club and work with one hand behind his back which he might feel he's doing if I'm here. It's the manager's decision and if he says I've got to go, it's acceptable.