A PENNY for the thoughts of Steve Bruce. For all he became a master in the art of diplomacy during last season's name change saga, the Hull City manager must be struggling to find the enthusiasm to face another campaign of distractions.
After Assem Allam stopped the traffic around the region with his eagerly-awaited press conference yesterday, confirming the club had formally been declared up for sale, it will be Bruce's turn to face the media this morning.
A weekly briefing has been called to discuss City's televised game with West Ham United on Monday night, but first the Tigers boss will be asked to address the off-field matters that have bubbled back to the surface.
Only when Bruce has given his thoughts on the prospect of seeing Dr Allam sell up can he begin to talk about the prospect of unleashing four deadline day signings.
Bruce has been here before, of course, emerging as East Yorkshire's answer to Kofi Annan in the last 12 months.
Throughout the Hull Tigers debate of last season he carefully walked a line where he upset neither his employers nor supporters.
In the run-up to his first appearance at Wembley as a manager, the FA Cup semi-final with Sheffield United, he was probed for his views on the FA's looming verdict. On top of the demands of being a newly-promoted top-flight manager, it was an intense distraction to contend with.
Perhaps what made it bearable was his liking for Dr Allam. The pair have grown close since Bruce was recruited as manager in the summer of 2012 and the support he has received has been the envy of his rivals. What Bruce asks for, he invariably gets.
That was never more apparent on the final day of the summer transfer window. Four times he approached his board to sign an international footballer and four times he got the green light. The arrival of Abel Hernandez, Mohamed Diame, Hatem Ben Arfa and Gaston Ramirez in a flurry of late activity will have been followed by a thank-you.
Another discussion will no doubt have come this week to explain what was brewing. Bruce will have known much of what Dr Allam had to say and is unlikely to have lost sleep. But the rumbles of uncertainty from the boardroom are never what a manager wishes to hear. Not when he is happy in his job.
"Nobody needs instability," said Dr Allam in a concession that yesterday's events will inevitably trickle down from the top of the tree and Bruce will be the one looking up for the drips.
If Dr Allam stays on as owner for the foreseeable future, you suspect life goes on as usual at the KC. This, after all, is not a squad any content manager would choose to walk away from.
Should this mark the beginning of the end for Allam's reign, however, Bruce knows from experience that football offers no guarantees. Beyond the trust of Dr Allam would be the same security afforded to any other in the cut-throat world of management.
For now those are all issues for another day. The future of City could ultimately be resolved through arbitration when an appeal against the FA is heard and that is likely to take months, rather than weeks. A buyer could be found in the meantime, but those are bridges to cross a long way down the line.
City supporters, united in their backing of Bruce, can only hope the history-making manager is still around to lead the march.
