Afternoon:
10°c
Spin doctor Richard's in a ward of his own
Richard Scudamore enjoyed such a lively weekend in the newspapers that picking a favourite quote from the Premier League boss hasn't been easy.
The winner, however, is this, as confided to the News of the World. “People say players are paid too much,” observed Richard, no doubt chuckling sardonically at so fanciful a thought. “The NHS decides how many nurses they want and how much to pay them to do the job. It's the same with football.” Ah, but true this is. The times you hear of a staff nurse at the Charing Cross Hospital refusing to signing a contract after being offered £151,000 per week by UCH. It's the best analogy I've ever heard, especially when you remember that not long ago Noreena Hertz ran a campaign to get Premier League players to donate wages to their direct equivalents on the wards of the NHS.
. . . And his memory's the first thing to check
As for the runner up, this appeared in the Sunday Times. “It's the first time I've known,” said Richard, boasting of the League's unpredictability, “where the three teams who
came up are not the automatic favourites to
get relegated.” This is true. What Richard omits to mention is the reason . . . that his own wilful failure to monitor club owners properly has permitted the financial chaos that's forced Portsmouth, where the directors still have no idea if Sulaiman Al-Fahim will complete his takeover, to sell so many of their best players.
All hail Warnock after Palace robbery rant
With wonted prescience, meanwhile, Richard also told the Sunday Times, in an interview given before Crystal Palace were robbed of that goal at Bristol City, that he supports goal-line video technology. It's an ancient debate, this one, and I can take either position with equal passion depending on mood and alcoholic intake. On balance, though, best leave things as they are, because anything that hoists Neil Warnock to new heights of self-indulgent idiocy (replay the game forsooth!) must be applauded. As for Neil's chairman, Simon Tangerine' Jordan, his accusation that the opposition cheated by failing to own up to the ref it was a goal tweaks the heart strings. Who knew the Judith Chalmers tribute act was such a fan of the Corinthian spirit?
It won't be all bad if Burnley are relegated
Hats off to Frank Bruno for winning Saturday's Weakest Link special, just a few weeks after Paul Gascoigne came second in another. Given the
success rate for sporting figures with well chronicled mental health problems, Alastair Campbell has been installed as even money favourite for any future Celebrity Football Fans edition of the show. As feared, Ali launched his career as Mr Burnley on Saturday afternoon, interviewing namesake Dave Burnley (deed-poll buffoon) for BBC1's Football Focus. Managers wishing to motivate their teams at Turf Moor need only remind them that Ali will relapse into silent obscurity the moment the club are relegated.
