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When we look at Francesco Guidolin on the sidelines, he seems like a man who is intrinsically underprepared. Not just underprepared for football management, mind: he looks like a man who is ill-equipped to handle pain, criticism and all the many vagaries of life. He has the permanent air of a grey, drained middle-management type who has turned up to a crucial meeting, but has secretly done his mandatory, hour-long PowerPoint presentation on the train, and knows he's going to have to rely on a series of slides that feature bolded-up terms like 'SYNERGY', 'VALUES' and 'HOLISTIC APPROACH' when he has literally no idea what the aim of the meeting is, and little understanding of his actual role. He tends to watch Swansea with a sort of bemused look on his face, occasionally throwing out a weak hand gesture, quietly watching the clock and daydreaming about going home and making himself a delicious pasta bake for one.In this sense, Francesco Guidolin is a tragic figure. Not tragic like King Lear, or Macbeth, or one of the other countless histrionic characters of high drama; just that melancholy, mundane, everyday sort of tragic that leaves previously carefree people crushed by the weight of responsibility, flattened by the drudging burden of their work. Guidolin has admitted that he could lose his job if Swansea lose to Liverpool on Saturday and, considering that they've taken a mere four points from their first six games, it would hardly be a massive surprise. Under pressure to get results, stressed out about his future prospects, Guidolin is just like the rest of us, a mushy husk chewed up and spat out by the big, wet mouth of an uncaring world.If we're going to be brutally honest about the situation, Guidolin should never have got this far in the first place. When he somehow managed to steer Swansea to safety last season, he should have been thanked profusely, given a hearty handshake and sent off to manage a mid-table Italian club. Instead, he was given a difficult job in South Wales, a thankless task with a club that has been floundering for some time now. If football games were won through the medium of PowerPoint presentations, only the slickest effort could stop Swansea from sliding down the table at this point. Guidolin doesn't have a slick effort – he has a collection of animated text boxes, and he's accidentally written the whole thing in Wingdings.While his tale might seem tragic at present, there is at least some light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe, just maybe, being sacked by Swansea will be the best thing that has ever happened to Guidolin. Much like an underperforming employee who, when the long-awaited axe finally falls, actually finds that the blow comes as a relief of sorts, Guidolin might be able to rediscover the joy of existence. The colour will return to his cheeks, laughter will return to his lips and, who knows, he might be able to get a job with Torino, or someone. He was looking for a better work-life balance, anyway.
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