Euro glory always the target

THEY’RE not fooling us for a minute. Beating Inter just sets us up for the mother of all falls. The blueprint to make Hicks think he’s bought a dud remains unaltered.

It took a while to decipher the stratagem and I’m reluctant to discredit the conspiracy theory after this reddest of herrings. Even his son’s taking a slap now! Few fans ever doubted the manager’s ability on the European stage and it was hard not to sympathise with him last week.

Win, and it ‘proved’ he was more concerned with Champions League glitter than with domestic drudgery.