WHETHER it's a 64-inch plasma on which to view DVDs of upcoming opponents, or the surprising job choice that many others wouldn't see, football managers have to look at the bigger picture.
Like Liam Watson this week; the landscape towards the bottom of the Conference Premier isn't half as pretty to cast your eye over as the panorama from the summit of the North.
Watson has announced his intention to leave Southport for a second time after keeping them in the Non-League top-flight for a fourth successive season.
He's actually won them promotion to that division twice – in 2005 during his first stint at Haig Avenue and then again in2010 after retur ning from Burscough – and wants to leave with his reputation intact and his status as the Sandgrounders' most successful and longest-serving manager unblemished.
As The Non-League Paper's current manager of the year, you'd think I'd be advocating a move into the Football League for the 42-year-old.
Winner: Watson proudly clasps his Manager of the Year prize at last season's National Game Awards.
At worst, the Macclesfield job that seems attractive, in the sense that it is still in the Conference Premier and it's full-time, but not so pretty when you continually hear rumours of financial cut-backs at Moss Rose.
Contention
Since first becoming their youngest ever manager aged 33, Watson has performed wonders at Southport, especially since returning five years ago.
He took them back to part-time status, won the Step 2 title for a second time and last season had them in contention for promotion to the Football League – 34 years after ‘Port were relegated – until the final fortnight of the campaign.
Perhaps he should have resigned then, because his performance was a massive over-achievement and anything less than seventh place this year would be a backward step in the eyes of many.
Not mine though. Every year Watson keeps Southport in the top-flight is a massive plus on his CV, as this year has been for Nicky Law at Alfreton and Alan Devonshire at Braintree.
Dartford's Tony Burman, Woking's Garry Hill, Nuneaton boss Kev Wilkin and Scott McNiven at Hyde could all stake a claim for Watson's crown this time, but each will know that it's harder to maintain the momentum in the second season.
Watson couldn't keep doing it every year on one of the lowest budgets in the Conference, and I fully expect Watson to take a backward step in management.
It will be to eventually move forward again, however. AFC Telford United – where he has a great relationship with chairman Lee Carter having fought head-to-head with the Bucks since their formation, winning the 2006-07 Northern Premier title on the Shropshire club's ground, at their expense, and then in Blue Square North – would be perfect.
Challenge
While crowds at Haig Avenue rarely rose above 1,500 last season, Watson's nous would stand Telford in good stead for an immediate return from relegation next term and they would attract the 2,000-plus gates that Southport can't when the business end of the season approaches.
If they then challenge in what I expect to return to a primarily part-time based Premier in the next couple of years, there would be scope to potentially take the Bucks into the League.
The ‘Bigger Picture' is one we've seen already this season when Eddie Howe left Championship side Burnley to return to League One Bournemouth, and when John Still left League Two Dagenham & Redbridge to return to the Conference at a much bigger club in Luton Town.
Along similar lines lower down the Non-League Pyramid in recent years, Neil Aspin left Step 2 for the FC Halifax project starting at Step 4, as did Neil Young leaving a Colwyn Bay side he'd just taken to Step 3 to start Chester's fan-led revolution.
Terry Brown did it when he left Conference side Hayes for Ryman Premier Aldershot Town in 2002, then again when he left the Shots, at the time of his wife Suzi's battle with cancer in 2007, and returned to Step 3 to kickstart AFC Wimbledon's rise to League Two.
That same widescreen view should be applied when Watson's next backward move is confirmed.
I’ve wanted Liam Watson as manager at AFC Telford for years and have no doubt that one day he will be. In the past, whenever a vacancy arose, he was on a crest of a wave with either Southport or Burscough. It also appeared that his day job would have restricted him to the north-west. Now it looks like a real possibility that he could be the next incumbent in the hot seat at the New Bucks Head. If that came to pass it would indeed herald exciting times.