Apologies for the headline, it was a shameless attempt to get your attention.

Peterborough have today sacked manager Darren Ferguson (Alex Ferguson’s son so there is a tenuous link with Manchester United to this story).

What the hell is wrong with the people in charge of Peterborough?!

He was appointed Manager of Peterborough in January 2007 when they were a Division Two side. They were on a run of six straight defeats at the time and things looked a bit bleak but he managed to guide them to mid-table safety.

The following season (2007/08), he took them to second place and promotion to the First Division.

That would have been viewed as a massive achievement by any manager, let alone someone in their first full season as a manager.

Ferguson, however, was not finished there and incredibly led them to a second-successive promotion by finishing second in Division One in the 2008/09 season.

It seems to me that he did too well for his own good here. Taking a team up two divisions in two years might look great on paper but I have always thought that it is possible for a club to get too big too soon. It seems a ridiculous thing to say but Darren Ferguson might have been better served by guiding Peterborough to “just missing out on promotion” in the 2008/09 season.

Having led them to promotion the season before, no one would have had the right to insist on a successive promotions and another season in Division One right now would have allowed a longer period of re-adjustment for everyone involved as they make their bid for promotion to the Championship.

Getting to the Championship ahead of schedule has left them exposed really. The difference between Championship and Division One football is perhaps as big as the difference between Championship and Premiership football.

You will be playing against sides who over the last couple of seasons will have played in the Premier League (certainly, three of them were playing in the Premier League just a few months ago).

As I write, Peterborough are at the foot of the Championship table, it doesn’t look great but they are only four points from safety but even if they are relegated, why should it mean the end for Darren Ferguson as manager there?

If he has to go back down to Division One and then come back up again then everyone will have a better idea of what is required at that level and if they can get back to the Championship for the 2011/12 season then that will still be Division Two to Championship in four years for Peterborough and I think most teams would view that as a very good timescale.

At 37 years of age, Darren Ferguson is still a baby in managerial terms and can only be learning and getting better from everything that he has been through over the last few years as a manager.

Hopefully, there will be a team out there who would be delighted to go up two divisions in four years and will snap up the services of Darren Ferguson very soon.