When Gavin Patterson whimsically declared after his sacking that nearly five years was a fair turn for a BT CEO he highlighted one reason why the company had decided he was not the right person to lead the recovery. Such jauntiness in the face of adversity had got under the skin of leading investors especially the largest one, the rather stiff lipped Deutsche Telekom with 12%. Yet Patterson was right in that like managers of leading football clubs BT CEOs do not tend to survive a run of bad results. They certainly have been bad lately with a reverse in fortunes dating back to the high point early in 2016 when the share price peaked just short of 500p. At…