FORMER Clarets hero Brian Flynn is one of the 21 managerial casualties in this early season madness and he admitted he is "appalled" by the current spate of sackings.

Oldham Athletic boss Andy Ritchie was the latest casualty yesterday and Flynn adm itted to a growing sense of bewilderment.

"Oldham were top of the table a few weeks ago, they are still in the top eight and they have sacked the manager," he said. "I can't explain it, can you?"

Flynn was one of the longest serving managers in the country before he parted company with Wrexham a few weeks ago.

For the past nine years he has been on the executive committee of the League Managers' Association, currently working alongside David Pleat, Dave Bassett, Alan Curbishley, Sir Alex Ferguson, Jim Smith, Steve Parkin and chairman Howard Wilkinson.

John Barnwell is chief executive and England coach Sven Goran Eriksson is an honorary member.

"It was Graham Taylor who had the idea of setting up the LMA in 1992 with a man called John Campkin," he said. "In the past managers had been lumped in with club secretaries and others but it was felt we needed our own association.

"Now every manager who gets sacked can contact us and we have the legal backing to give them as much help as we can. We have strong representations on the legal side.

"The statistics show that the average tenure for a manager now is about 20 months which is crazy. I am currently compiling some statistics but in the 80s I know it was longer."

One of the LMA's key initiatives is to ensure that by 2003 every manager and head coach will be armed with the appropriate coaching certificates, bringing England in line with the rest of Europe.

"Germany, Italy and France have all done it for years and we are sure it will help managers," he said.

"But the most important thing is to help everyone at every club to accept different expectation levels, that means the board, the players, the staff and, last but not least, the fans."

"We all know there are leagues within leagues and if you asked the Carlisle manager what success would be he would say staying in the third division because they have been at the bottom for the past three seasons.

"For other clubs it might be mid-table or pushing for a play-off place but the key is realising the expectations from top to bottom."

Flynn is now a regular visitor down at the Clarets training ground at Gawthorpe having been invited along by his old friend Stan Ternent.

"I am not coaching as such, I am just going down there, getting my kit on and enjoying myself," he said.

"I come and go as I please, I have a run, play a bit of five-a-side with the young players at the end of the session and observe Stan, Doc (Mick Docherty) and the rest of them in action.

"Everyone has made me very welcome and it has been great getting out in the fresh air and having some fun."

Flynn's name has been linked with a number of the vacancies that have come up, the latest being as a successor to Andy Kilner at Stockport County.

He is not willing to comment on any speculation but after many years of experience at Wrexham he must be seen as a strong candidate by any chairman who gets his cv through the post.

"Any job will see around 20 applications but about half will be discarded straight away," he said. "The remaining half will probably be split again and you are likely to be left with about five serious contenders."

The question remains, with the precarious nature of the profession, why would anyone want to get back onto the treadmill?

But nothing is more certain than that for every sacking, there will be a queue of potential replacements just waiting to take over the reins.