Listening to the English supporters chanting "what a load of rubbish" last Saturday was something akin to being at the Eircom annual general meeting.

But in football the opinion of the masses really does count for something and unlike many managers in the business arena, Kevin Keegan did the only thing he could and stepped down from a job for which he didn't feel he was qualified. Admitting that he didn't feel qualified for it was probably difficult but remarkably honest in an age where nobody usually admits to being anything other than brilliant at what they do. Every time he met the press he talked the good talk but, with a won 7, drew 7, lost 4 set of results, nobody was fooled. This was not living up to fans' expectations.

If the England team was quoted on the stockmarket the share price would be bumping along at all-time lows. When publicly-quoted companies start bumping along at all-time lows there are a lot of questions asked. The same sort of questions that are asked of football coaches. Only companies tend to keep their managers for longer and allow them to fail even more spectacularly.

Actually, as I've said before in this column, managers tend to stay with the companies whether they're wanted or not. Very few believe in biting the bullet and admitting that they've been promoted above the level of their competence as so often does happen in the business world. Most of them will certainly want to stay long enough to get a decent compensation package so that they can depart secure in the knowledge that getting another job isn't the most urgent thing on their agenda. There's talk that Keegan, who still had two years to run on his contract, will get £1 million in compensation which is as flabbergasting as anything that happens in the boardroom. If you've just said that you can't hack it any more then why on earth are you being paid to leave?

One of the difficulties in replacing a corporate senior executive is whether to recruit from within the company or to cast your net elsewhere. The problem with in-house promotion is that you don't necessarily get the best person for the job that way but you will, in all likelihood, get the most politically astute person.

Going outside your industry is a bit of a gamble. There's an unspoken belief that a good manager will be a good manager regardless of what sector he or she works in. But that's not always the case. I once knew a brilliant accountant who was (and was prepared to admit it) a terrible banker. And you'd think that being an accountant and being a banker would go hand in hand. But no. He just didn't have a feel for lending money. (Maybe that's why he was an accountant!) And he's currently working in a completely different industry which suits him much better.

There's no sure-fire way of picking the top person for the job. But the shareholders, unlike the fans, can't really make a difference when it comes to the management team. Chief executives of publicly-owned companies are clearly a much tougher lot than managers of the English football team, though, and cries of "what a load of rubbish" at annual meetings are usually voted down by the proxies that they hold.

But the markets can influence boardroom decisions and express their approval when someone on the management team decides (or is made to decide) that enough is enough. The BT experience is proof of that. BT is another telcoms company going through a bit of a nightmare (which may or may not be of comfort to Eircom shareholders.) A year ago, the BT shareholders were complaining that the company was moribund, unable or unwilling to make potentially lucrative acquisitions or to expand in a meaningful way.

Then came the auction for mobile phone licences and BT was suddenly a profligate company which would never earn back the money it spent and has a debt which is expected to reach almost £30 billion to manage. Remember it was downgraded to a single A rating by Standard & Poors a couple of months ago? And, as a result, it pulled its corporate bond issue?

Now one of BT's directors, Robert Brace - who was finance director, poor sod - has resigned. Not entirely to spend more time with his family, which is what politicians and football managers do. He's decided that he wants to live and work in the US. Given the rough ride he's had over the past year, I don't blame him although I don't think he'll find Wall Street any more forgiving than the City.

Brace's resignation, though, is a little like Howard Wilkinson deciding to resign from England duty before Keegan, because the chairman, Sir Iain Vallance, is still in situ. He hasn't been given the full and unconditional support of the board, as is customary with failing football managers, so he might be there for a time yet - maybe because of, rather than in spite of, persistent rumours of his imminent resignation.

His message in the annual report is suitably upbeat about the company's prospects despite having to mention (almost as an aside) that pre-tax profits are down by 5.3 per cent. Other directors have already fallen on their swords, notably the deputy chairman and the group managing director while the company has announced a major reorganisation of its business lines, trying to separate its old and new technology areas.

BT does great annual reports and, as a shareholder you can actually get company information e-mailed to you as well as being able to check your shareholding on the Web. So it's a terribly shareholder-friendly company. Except in the one area of making those profits!

The shareholders might not have been as wounding as the English football fans at the results they've been seeing, but the market certainly liked the idea of Brace's departure and his replacement by Philip Hampton a former director of British Gas - the shares leaped by 8 per cent on the announcement.

Unfortunately its enthusiasm was probably helped by the fact that Hampton had been involved in the breaking up of British Gas into its constituent parts, which BT has denied it intends to do.

The shares might still maintain some momentum but the chant from the terraces won't change just yet. And they still have a number of management vacancies to fill. Hopefully, though, with people who know how to do the job and who can hack the abuse that will no doubt still be hurled at them in the future.