Guus Hiddink has insisted his relationship with Ronald Koeman has recovered from the time they were rivals to be manager of the Netherlands.

If Wednesday’s statement is to prove the last meaningful act of Luis Suarez’s Liverpool career, it would be an entirely appropriate way to finish it: another deft turn, a blatant piece of cynicism.

Consider if you will those invented little items that have changed humanity: The wheel, the steam engine, the car, the electric light bulb, the phone, the television, the internet and — most importantly — the widget.

“A CROWD of us were going along the Shepherd’s Bush Road when out of a lane came a chap with a donkey — just the sort of donkey and just the sort of cart they have at home,” Michael Collins recalled. “He came out quite suddenly and abruptly and we all cheered him. Nobody who has not been in exile will understand me, but I stand for that.”