‘The end of football as we once knew and loved it arrived this week when an England manager admitted he only picked his captain for an international match because of a £300million television contract.
‘Sven Goran Eriksson said commercial concerns kept David Beckham in the side against Spain a fortnight ago and a country bowed its head in bleak despair.
‘So this is what it has come to. A style icon who is playing like a drain gets to turn out for his country because he sits next to Tom Cruise in a private box at the Bernabeu now and again. Beckham wears the skipper's armband because Elton John and Liz Hurley go to his parties and someone asks him to play a part in a Pink Panther movie. Is that how low we've sunk?
‘When sport has come to this, when it is no longer a meritocracy but a system hopelessly in thrall to the demands of sponsors, then it is no longer sport at all.
‘As spectators, we want to see the best. We don't want a nagging thought at the back of our minds telling us we're watching injustice, not sport.’
And he also has time to put the boot into this gobshite:
‘Freddy Sheppard’s always good for a laugh, particularly when it comes to preaching to other clubs how to run their businesses. When the Newcastle chairman had the gall yesterday to criticise the way Manchester United was run, you almost had to admire the front of the guy.
‘This is the man who sold Jonathan Woodgate to Real Madrid and then seemed surprised when it was pointed out to him the club didn't have any other centre halves worth a carrot. This is the man who set new standards for shoddy treatment of a manager who was a legend in the north east.
‘Who the hell is he to criticise United chief executive David Gill?
‘The Old Trafford hierarchy may have made mistakes in the recent past but at least they show some transparency where their business dealings are concerned. Why doesn't Freddy throw open the accounts at St James' Park to public scrutiny, too? What is it he could be scared of, I wonder?’