Animals know these things. If you take a trip out into the frozen countryside today, you can see that something big and bad is coming. Death is everywhere, smeared on the roads and hanging in the air. Self-Preservation is the order of the day.

But don't tell Tony Adams. It seems to me, he never truly understood what it was all about. Right from his appointment, he was always very open with the media, talking about transfers and training and his players. Would Sir Alex ever let an outsider into his bunker?

Never. It's all about looking out for number one.

Just look at International Man of Mystery Sven Goran Eriksson. He's already on thin ice in Mexico and he's probably aware that linking himself to Portsmouth could be the last straw, and the Mexicans could, quite fairly, ask for his resignation.

Yeah, another good one. Sven will never resign because that would mean forfeiting all that lovely money he signed up for. He may be a fairly terrible football team manager, but he's not stupid.

Sven knows all about Self-Preservation. All of Mexico hates him, and he's engaged in high-stakes power-play. On Wednesday night he cunningly led his unpopular Mexican team to defeat against the USA, all so he can be fired and collect his cheque in time to take the Pompey job. It's brilliant, in a cruel, heartless and totally unprofessional way.

But remember, Sven knows it's all about Self-Preservation.

John Terry was obviously taking notes when Sven was England manager. When he was asked about Big Phil Scolari's departure from Chelsea after a number of dreary and tedious performances, Terry happily threw his teammates under the bus.

"He had my full support. I'm sure two or three of the other players would say the same", said the some-time England captain, but most-time not. "Maybe it should have fallen more on us the players."

What? It's up to the players to get results? Since when was a team of veteran internationals supposed to dispose of Hull comfortably? Calm down John. You backed the manager. There was nothing else you could've done.

Tony never understood it, and you could see it whenever he spoke to the press. He would hold his hands up and admit the results were bad and the defending abysmal, but at the same time he would deny the performances had been poor. It's as if he had some sort of problem, a problem that could possibly lead people to question his judgementâ.¦

Whoa, hold on. Now we're not just questioning professionals who are paid handsomely to train, prepare and manage professional footballers. Now we're questioning the people who hire and fire these professionals, who are more than willing to bail out at the first sign of failure. These are people who often have little idea about what makes a good manager. If you were at all cynical you would think that they are no more qualified than you or I.

And these Directors and Executives have proved that they're more than willing to appoint a narcissist like Paul Ince or a dangerous psychopath like Roy Keane or even Joe Kinnear and his broken heart. And this is overlooking the fact that although their track-records are unimpressive (or non-existent), they've all recently been appointed to some of the biggest, high-profile jobs in the country.

So, it's not just the players and managers who are out for themselves, it's everyone lunching in the director's boxes as well. Let's face it everyone is trying to make a quick buck or save a job in the current climate.

Phil Gartside is a life-long fan of Bolton Wanderers, and Gary Megson is proving to be an effective water-carrier for the Chairman. It seems to me that Gartside has rather a lot riding on Megson's success in the next few weeks.

I've got my fingers crossed that they don't get caught in the headlights.