Saudis, sponsors and stats leave sour taste

BEFORE I start: tell me, is it my turn to manage Newcastle United yet? No? Ah well, back to the day job, then.

I love sneeringly perusing those statistics boxes that have become de rigueur in all the football press these days, with their nerdy tabulation of every misplaced pass and self-important player rankings.

They show a touchingly naive — and utterly mistaken — faith in the ability of statistics to summarise judgmentally a game that can, in fact, only be understood instinctively, even emotionally.