ONE of the most depressing things about watching the FA Cup Final between Manchester City and Stoke City last Saturday was hearing the TV commentator say that the scorer of the only goal, City’s Yaya Toure,  was reputed to be earning £220,000 A WEEK!

City’s win, following their midweek clinching of a place in next season’s Champions League, means that they are guaranteed to splash out even more millions on transfers during the summer as they aim to mop up all the world’s top football talent for themselves.

MOST young boys who dream of becoming a footballer want to be a star striker, and it is easy to see why – they grab all the headlines and quite often most of the money:  Struggling Premier League side Aston Villa splashed out £18million (the deal could eventually rise to £24million) for Sunderland forward Darren Bent last week.

THE sacking of Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson  on Saturday morning was preceded a couple of days before by comments from the chief executive of the League Managers Association warning that clubs should not be “treated as the playthings of the super rich”.

Hodgson was one of four managers reportedly at risk from the axe along with Gerard Houllier at Aston Villa, Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea and Avram Grant at West Ham.

OH dear, the natives are getting restless!

In the impatient world that is football, calling for the manager to be sacked even before we’ve entered the month of December is commonplace.