I think I’ve found a cure for sleep deprivation and, no, desperate parents, it doesn’t involve the controversial ‘Herod tough love’ method.

Slamming, body-rocking heat greeted the traveller in Manaus yesterday. When even the local taxi driver wipes his forehead and declares it’s "mucho calde" you know this isn’t a climate for the faint-hearted.

Greetings from Hio — and no, you haven’t read that wrong.

You find me today preparing for The Leaving.

He came, he saw, he went home… Should the creators of the hilarious Saipan spoof I, Keano decide to write a sequel, the tagline might be a bit more of a mouthful.

We have to talk about Stephen. Well, actually, we don’t, but it seems that in at least every other encounter with a manager of the Republic of Ireland over the past seven years, we end up talking about Stephen.

Ronnie Whelan was back in his old football nursery this week, revisiting the tight little Home Farm pitch in Whitehall that must have seemed as big as Wembley when, aged just six, he was brought along by his famous dad to debut in the mini-leagues.

"It’s up for grabs now."

"It’s up for grabs now."

Although Louis van Gaal appears to be closing in on the Manchester United job, this week’s Champions League action offered clues to a possible alternative narrative had the hunt for David Moyes’ successor taken another route.