FOOTBALL might be a funny old game but there can have been few odder situations than the one finally resolved at York City this week.

It is certainly very difficult to recall a manager at any club remaining employed as a player 14 months after he was relieved of his off-field duties.

Confidentiality clauses mean the departure of Chris Brass, whose reign in charge of the Minstermen only lasted 16 months, passed by with little comment from both parties and it is difficult to exercise judgement on the affair without full details of the financial settlement and the negotiations that have taken place over the past year.

But, while both Brass and the club board will no doubt be relieved that the long-running saga is over, neither side will be celebrating its overdue outcome too strongly.

Information about Brass' compensation package might not be available but it is fair to assume the 30-year-old defender has accepted less than he would have received under the terms of a contract, which had 18 months left to run.

The sum will still, no doubt, have been a considerable one and the board have previously admitted that handing Brass a three-and-a-half year contract six months into his new job was a mistake.

Relieving him of those duties ten months later has also served as a millstone to the club.

Current manager Billy McEwan has gone on record citing the impact that honouring Brass' contract has had on his team-rebuilding plans and that could continue to be the case until a new budget is set for the 2006/2007 season.

Brass, meanwhile, could argue that having been shown faith by the board, illustrated by a new lengthy, managerial contract, and allowed to assemble his own team for an onslaught on promotion from the Conference, he was entitled to expect longer than the three months he was given in his second full season in command.

Few people present at his final game in charge - a 3-1 home defeat against Forest Green Rovers that saw Brass barracked by City fans - could reason, however, that his position was anything but untenable.

For the board, having made Brass the well-intentioned, if nave, offer of a new long-term deal on the back of an encouraging start to his managerial career during the first half of the 2003/2004 season, it was an expensive lesson to be learnt but then the decision has received more criticism with the benefit of hindsight than it was at the time.

An agreement between Brass and the club over his future following his dismissal as manager in November 2004 was not reached after Viv Busby had been installed as caretaker boss.

Then, when Brass suffered knee ligament damage in the final game of 2004, it was clear the matter would take longer to resolve.

Of more concern to Brass, understandably, was his health and playing career.

Happily, the Easington-born defender recovered but, in a bid to hasten a deal to facilitate his departure, Brass was frozen out of McEwan's first-team plans and told to look for new employers.

Loan spells at Conference North promotion-chasers Harrogate Town and Conference bottom club Southport have followed but are not the most impressive recent CV entries as Brass looks to find new employers that match his continued ambitions in the game.

With the January 31 transfer deadline looming, Brass also faces an anxious rush to find a new club and, probably for the first time since being a teenager at Burnley, prove his worth as a footballer again.

Few winners, therefore, come out of this week's settlement but, at least, both parties can now look forward without their futures being determined by the other.

City's board would, no doubt, have preferred it had Brass left KitKat Crescent with a fanfare having led the club to promotion back into the Nationwide League but the reality is that happy endings for football managers are about as common as merry Christmases for turkeys.

Any criticism of both parties over the affair also needs to be placed in context with the reasons for the board and Brass being thrust into such positions of responsibility.

With the club on the brink of extinction after the reigns of previous owners Douglas Craig and John Batchelor, City's board started off as a group of volunteers with no previous experience of football administration.

Brass, meanwhile, was asked to take over as manager at the raw age of 27 after the club decided Terry Dolan's 12-month rolling contract would prove difficult to honour in the future.

Prior to his appointment, it is also important to remember that Brass, as captain, had been a key figure in maintaining dressing-room harmony as the club plunged into administration and managed to stay in play-off contention despite wages going unpaid.

The club and Brass will have learned an awful lot from their experiences together and, although relations may have soured somewhat since July 2003, hopefully a parting of the ways will bring better fortunes for both in the future.

Updated: 10:04 Saturday, January 14, 2006