At just after 7pm on Thursday night, word started to leak out of Lancaster Gate that they had made remarkable and significant progress at the behest of their new leader. They're an unlikely group of upstarts for Crozier to sit with, what with the blazers and brass buttons of bureaucracy in their ranks. The major difference between the old-style ancient regime and the new broom determined to sweep away the cobwebs is the enfant terrible who now occupies the driving seat. After 10 months of settling into his role as policy maker of one of the most powerful football bodies in Europe, Crozier has finally decided to flex his muscles. Just political scheming of a Machiavellian order coupled with shrewd argument and a perfect sense of timing.
English football needs division now like it needs another bad manager.
In that respect, Crozier has finally grasped the nettle, or given his birthplace, the thistle. The latter is certainly a better emblem for the task with its sharper spikes and stubborn durability. The man from Saatchi and Saatchi has bared his teeth before with his sacking of FA staff whom he considered inefficient or irrelevant. That led to the apparently mild-mannered Scot being cast as a heartless butcher and colleagues who escaped the purge revelled in tales of 'blood on the carpet'. Taking out the minions was small fry for a man as powerful as Crozier.