He has done a fine job, achieving back-to-back winning seasons in 2004-5 and taking the Zips to the 2005 Motor City Bowl.
Swansea's Premier League place is safe for another year after achieving back-to-back wins for the first time since December 2012 but Villa remain embroiled in the relegation battle to the dismay of their supporters, who derided the fifth defeat in the last six games with choruses of "We want Lambert out" and demanded to know what was going on.
They now sit fourth in the table, with a good chance of achieving back-to-back promotions, but their financial situation has dominated headlines in recent months.
Di Canio voiced his anger at the embargo, saying the board have reneged on their ambition of achieving back-to-back promotions.
("Banks Culturee does it, why not us?") Just intone "3D printing!" or "Me Messiah!" over a rock pile, with or without Harry Potter's wand, and, hey presto, post-scarcity achieved, back to toy universes and customized sexbots!
Then Webb achieved back-to-back breakthroughs.
He joined from Shrewsbury in 2009 and helped Norwich achieve back-to-back promotions in his first two seasons that took them from League One to the Premier League.
The Cubs achieved back-to-back division titles in 2007-8, but were swept in the first round of the playoffs each year.
Since then, under the chairmanship of the outspoken Italian banker Nicola Cortese and, just as crucially, the management of Nigel Adkins, Southampton have achieved back-to-back promotions.
Last season he became its youngest double world champion and the ninth man – after some chaps called Ascari, Fangio, Brabham, Prost, Senna, Schumacher, Hakkinen and Alonso – to achieve back-to-back titles.
Donal laid out the opportunity for us: "The Lions are 125 years old and in all that time only once have they achieved back-to-back Test- series wins, in 1971 and 1974".
