To an extent, Fernando Martin, the quickly beleaguered new president of Real Madrid who is fighting off impending elections following his succession of the demoralised Florentino Perez, stated the obvious last month when he divulged the list of seven coaches who he wants to draw from to lead Los Merengues.

Few would argue with the assembly of Jose Mourinho, Sven Goran Eriksson, Rafael Benitez, Fabio Capello, Carlo Ancelotti, Marcello Lippi and, of course, Arsene Wenger.

The only surprise, perhaps, was that the departing PSV Eindhoven coach . . . and another former head of Real along with Capello . . . Guus Huddink wasn't included.

The futures of all those men . . . apart from Wenger, who despite overtures from everyone, even Chelsea, where they ache to copy his expansive football . . . are in play right now. Indeed it's almost a domino effect which will be activated by the departure of one of the names from that exclusively stellar list. Eriksson is, for example, foremost in the minds of many because he will definitely be leaving the England national team job following the World Cup and is desperate to return to club management. The word is that he is earmarked for Internazionale who are set to dispose of Roberto Mancini following the corruscating disappointment of their European Cup defeat by Villareal and their crumbling league form.

But then Newcastle United want Mancini, having dallied with Eriksson, if Martin O'Neill turns down a contract at St James's Park which is reputed to be worth at least £3m per year. Confused?

If only it were as simple as the phone poll conducted by one Italian newspaper last Thursday which merely asked readers to cast their votes at Inter for Mourinho (il sogno . . . the dream), Hiddink (il giramondo . . . the globetrotter), Eriksson (la sopressa . . . the boring choice) or Mancini (la continuita).

O'Neill was, of course, the constant front-runner to succeed Eriksson with England although that short-list appears to have become more Anglophile with every intervention by chief executive Brian Barwick. The smart money is now on Middlesbrough's Steve McClaren, especially after that storming Uefa Cup come-back, or Alan Curbishley possibly with the older, guiding hand of Sir Trevor Brooking who certainly champions the Charlton Athletic manager.

The great imponderable is the future of Mourinho. The Chelsea manager is contracted until 2010, earning £5.2 per year after tax, making him the best paid coach in the world at the richest club with potential bonuses to match his salary. But no-one in his coterie of friends and advisers expect Mourinho to stay at Stamford Bridge for another four years.

He is certainly unhappy, and Real Madrid, who have already courted Benitez who is yet to sign his new contract at Liverpool, are well aware of that unhappiness, as are Milan . . . who may see their coach Ancelotti decamp to the Bernabeu should Mourinho be attracted to the San Siro.

Juve, too, are toying with the idea of Capello's succession, especially as he has already held talks with Real himself and demanded that he becomes the club's highest-paid employee should he return. Transfer targets have also been discussed and the Italian will want to take striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, for example, with him to Spain while also bidding for Liverpool's Xabi Alonso. There was a sense of fin de siecle with Juve's Champions Leagie exit to Arsenal with Capello even being asked in the post-match press conference whether he now intended to quit.

The managerial merry-goround is clearly a situation that is apparently endlessly inter-meshed.