2007: a whole new ball game

IT’S that time of year again, when your football correspondent turns ‘Mystic Mackey’ — not to be confused with ‘Missed-It Mackey’ which is how I was affectionately known in my playing days.

With 2007 staggering into view, Nike have kindly sent me their latest, most advanced crystal ball, one which they say is guaranteed to generate hitherto unknown properties of spin, swerve, centrifugal force and that especially strange movement — the one scientists technically call ‘straight’ — which can cause the likes of David James to drop it for no apparent reason.

Bear in mind then that the following random and floating visions of the year ahead may be subject to a certain amount of distortion, rather in the way that, say, Jose Mourinho tends to see things on a pitch differently to the rest of humanity.