Who could foresee 2003?

TAKE one debt-laden football club heading for administration, add your average Russian oil billionaire and suddenly the transfer market is buoyant again, Europe’s elite clubs have a serious rival and Chelsea fans are dreaming of the Premiership,Champions League and probably the Nobel Peace Prize as well.

WHEN a player goes into a tournament with as much hullabaloo as Jonny Wilkinson at the Rugby World Cup, logic suggests the hype will consume its subject and spit out the bones.

Which is why that drop goal with the last meaningful kick of the World Cup final, against champions Australia in their own back yard, was so inevitable it should never have happened.