As Alex McLeish entered into discussions with Aston Villa on Wednesday, angry fans must wonder why their club did not pursue Mark Hughes instead.
The day after a managerial vacancy opened at Villa Park the former Wales manager exercised a break clause in his Fulham contract to leave the west London club.
"This decision to leave Fulham has not been influenced by any outside party," Hughes said at the time. "Neither myself nor my representative have approached or have been approached by another club."
That is of course not to say Hughes did not bat his eyelashes towards the former European Cup winners. Villa acknowledged it privately at the time, but were said not to have pursued him because they considered the manner of his departure unseemly.
Yet Hughes's is as nothing against McLeish's resignation by email from Birmingham City to join Blues' bitterest rivals.
So where did Hughes go wrong?
Well, Digger hears Villa was the wrong bigger club for him to move up the managerial ladder.
Fans at Fulham's last game of the season, which confirmed an eighth-place finish in the Premier League, saw Hughes receive short shrift from Mohamed Al Fayed during the chairman's lap of honour. It was clear then that theirs was not a match made in heaven.
Unfortunately for any Villa ambitions Hughes may have harboured, Fayed is very close to Doug Ellis, who is still heard at Villa Park, and it is believed Fayed was asked to write a reference for the Welshman.
Throw in the fact that Hughes is said to see himself enjoying a more generous budget than he received at Fulham (he did previously work for Sheikh Mansour) and it becomes clearer why he might have been overlooked in favour of McLeish.
The Villa owner, Randy Lerner, is believed to be keen to reduce expenditure. For all these reasons Hughes misses out.