Rules don’t apply for bad boys like Mario Balotelli

Correct us if we’re wrong here, but isn’t football’s silly season supposed to peter out once the season actually starts? Not so, it seems. Here we are with three games gone in the Premier League and the fluff is still overshadowing the important stuff. It’s almost as if a media that had to rely on the mad and mundane for the off-season finds itself unable to kick the habit.

Unfortunately, sideshows are a built-in add-on to all sport now and have been for some time. The transfer window and the expanding cottage industry it has spawned is enough in itself to make that apparent with more than one manager wondering in recent weeks just why exactly it should spill so far over into the season having been open for so long over the summer.

John Stones to Chelsea? Neymar to Manchester United? Excuse us while we giggle at that second one, though for laughs you would be hard-pressed to find a better example of humour than the advert placed by Sunderland striker Jermaine Defoe for a personal assistant who should be au fait at everything from launching his global brand to stocking his fridge.