Alas John didn't get the position, but did get a fantastic reply from Boro chairman Steve Gibson explaining the reasons why.
Well, whilst trawling through his hugely interesting site, which charts his progress on 77 things he'd like to achieve before he's 30, we stumbled across another Football Manager related task of his - to win the European Cup on FM 2007.
Apparently John is obsessed with FM, but this mission seemed to have fallen down his list of priorities (scandalous!) So we decided to offer him a motivational carrot in the form a free copy of FM 2007 if he agreed to pick up gauntlet and rise to the challenge. And, guess what? He has!
His task is well underway and you can read his first update here. He's opted to manage Spanish giants Barcelona by the way.