So where were you when you heard that Leeds United had sacked David O'Dreary, and were you surprised? At first, I was stunned in the way I always am when something comes out of the blue, even though I'd been suggesting to anyone willing to listen that he deserved to go, second only perhaps to Peter Reid. In his four years at Elland Road, O'Dreary managed to transform himself from one of the best-liked figures in football to one of the most reviled.

With a sense of paranoia that grew more pronounced over time, an eye for self advancement that mirrored Josef Stalin's (bit strong there, but still) and his penchant for rattling on about having to play the kids well into spending the rump of his £100m total outlay on players, it's clear that he wasn't the answer, was he? I liked to concentrate on the former aspect of his personality, his developing mistrust of pretty much everyone, to the extent that I started believing that someone had replaced the real O'Dreary with a doppelganger. Perhaps the genuine article had been kidnapped and forced to manage a third-tier Italian side, whilst the copy lost his head in Yorkshire. Hmmm, sounds like the germ of a story there…

It wasn't hard to see where the former Irish defender had gone wrong. Personally, I thought the slippery slope started with his book, the ill-titled Leeds on Trial, which was rightly criticised both for its content and the timing of its release. You may recall O'Dreary arguing that the name of his tome had nothing to do with the Bower-Woodgate trial that was coming to an end quite coincidentally at the same time as it was hitting the shelves, despite The Sun having serial rights and selecting, yep you guessed it, extracts concentrating on said legal affair for publication. Dear oh dear O'Dreary. Of course, the book alone couldn't get him the old heave-ho. That took his inability to translate wild spending levels into success on the pitch. There was also his evident lack of support for certain Leeds players, which was leading to full-on hatred between him and some of the seniors within the squad at the point of his dismissal. In short, he had it coming, didn't he? I can only hope - at the time of writing - that United aren't going to attempt to pick up the pieces by poaching the Boro's own Steve McClaren as a replacement.

As always, with a new site to manage and space to fill, the whole debacle got me thinking about similar scenarios in Championship Manager. O'Dreary's sacking appeared to have a lot to do with maintaining good relationships with his players. How many times have you seen a message flash up where a player is praised by the media, only for the manager to dozily retort - in spectacular fashion - that his charge still has a lot to learn? Clicking on the noted player's name will invariably show that he is unhappy at the lack of support from his boss, which is just how you imagine it would be if you had played your ass off, then found out you had been pegged back in no uncertain terms by the man for whom you were putting in all your effort. This was to some extent the O'Dreary way, and I guess he had his reasons for it. Presumably, these were motivational, an assertion that no matter how well you were performing, you could always do better.

Cross this attitude with that of Sir Alex Ferguson, the most closed shop of bosses. The Scot who will forever be cursed with the prefixes 'dour' or 'canny' is as publicly supportive of his staff as it is possible to be, almost leading to surreally unrealistic levels of defence. Imagine Roy Keane sneaking a machete onto the pitch and summarily hacking Alfe-Inge Haaland into pieces following a typically bruising clash. You know that Fergie is going to stick up for him, either blaming the referee - or in this case the police - for his incompetence, or simply gushing over Keane's performance in general. What he says behind closed doors might be different, and you can almost see the Old Trafford cleaner viewing those tricky tea stains on the dressing room walls with a resigned shake of the head, but for the public's benefit, he sees his players as angels who spend their spare time walking old ladies across the road. Another who deserves similar criticism is Arsene "I didn't see the incident" Wenger, who must be tying his shoe laces every time one of the Arsenal lads gets into trouble.

The truth is that player motivation is one of the keys to success in CM, and you must ensure that you can keep your boys happy. As Sir Alex knows too well, a squad in good spirits will always outplay another that is down in the dumps, which is a major factor in Manchester United's steamroller form before last season. Even if your team isn't doing as well as expected, and several players are shown to be unhappy, you can get over this by batting back any critical points against an individual with some glowing praise, thus instantly enhancing your man's form and morale, and improving your chances of getting out of that hole you've made for yourself. On the whole though, you should always be prepared to give the impression that your team is a happy family of over-performing demi-Gods. If one of your players is singled out for praise, build it up and watch that boy glow.

Should you manage to stay on good terms with the lads, you will have taken a step towards glory. You might also earn a glowing reference from the fans, or better still your Chairman, who after all is the man holding your contract in his pampered, well-fed hands. For me, this was O'Dreary's big mistake as a manager, and it is one of the things that make Ferguson so frustrating to watch - especially when you know he wants to tear a strip off someone - but so festooned with awards.