HAS the time come to do away with technical areas for football managers?

I pose the question simply because hardly a week seems to go by without a flashpoint on the touchline involving coaching staff.

Last weekend alone we had Jose Mourinho and Paul Lambert continually in each others' faces, jovially or otherwise, during Aston Villa's 1-0 victory over Chelsea.

Then, 24 hours later, het-up Spurs boss Tim Sherwood petulantly hurled the ball at Arsenal full-back Bacary Sagna in the North London derby.

It all came hot on the heels of Newcastle boss Alan Pardew's now infamous head-butt on Hull City midfielder David Meyler.

Such incidents are not exclusive to the Premier League either. Just watch the Football League show any Saturday night. It's happened at Worcester City matches as well over the years.

What is it with managers and coaches that they cannot be trusted to stand side-by-side for 90 minutes without feeling the need to get involved in a bit of histrionics?

Perversely, it is quite an entertaining soap opera at times but in the long run it merely detracts from the game.

It seems that putting two highly-charged individuals in close proximity, with just the helpless fourth official to act as mediator, is trouble waiting to happen. Maybe that's the point.

I'm also not certain what watching a game from pitch level achieves anyway. The view is distorted in my experience.

Why not try watching from a higher vantage point in the stands like rugby coaches? That way they can get a better overview of the situation and communicate instructions via a colleague on the sidelines.

It might also keep them out of trouble.