Please give me a chance

THERE is no way of knowing for certain whether the arrow of political correctness has penetrated the shoulder, let alone the heart, of professional football. Somehow you very much doubt it. There remains something distinctly primeval about the game.

On the day Claudio Ranieri took up his managerial post at Chelsea, for instance, the Italian's agent told me that Graham Rix's next stop would be unemployment. When I asked him why, he said Ranieri had taken one judgmental look at the Stamford Bridge assistant manager and found him to be sartorially challenged, not the bella figura he demanded. Soon, the guy who had supported Gianluca Vialli throughout the club's unprecedented run of success found himself out on his ringed ear.

Three years later, Ranieri of Rome is thriving in West London.