New code of conduct has to help, right?

Last week the English FA handed down
the report of its investigation
into the racial abuse case levelled at former national team
captain John Terry. The 53-page report loosely implies – but stops
far short of accusing – Terry, teammate Ashley Cole and Chelsea FC
executive David Barnard of contriving evidence to benefit the
player's defence.




Cole responded as any normal person
would: with
a

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Three things: Rooney reinvented

Maybe Sir Alex has found his
central midfielder



Experts suggested Sir Alex Ferguson
fling his summer spending money at a central midfielder with tenacity
and passing range. Instead, he thrust an enormous great wodge of
cash at former rival Arsene Wenger and made
away with Robin van Persie.



This left the centre of Old Trafford
manned by the solid but ultimately-misunderstood Michael

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Michael Ballack retires

Earlier this week, former Germany captain Michael
Ballack retired from all professional football. The most stylish
and (sometimes brutally) effective German player of his generation
leaves the game permanently at age 36.



Ballack had both the fortune and misfortune of being born five years too
late. To look at it another way, he was born five years too early.
He could have been a precocious

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Three things: Where have all the good teams gone?

Are there any great teams in this
league?




Table-toppers
Chelsea, while capable of sparkling, appear to lack real depth in
their midfield. Nonetheless, they remain the team to beat.
Manchester City have flattered to deceive so far this season;
cross-town nemeses United have struggled mightly, losing at home to
Tottenham Hotspur for the first time in Tom Cleverley's lifetime.
Arsenal,

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Three things: Chelsea may regret Lukaku absence

Three things we noticed from the EPL this week:



Chelsea might regret loaning out
Romelu Lukaku



Romelu Lukaku arrived at Stamford
Bridge before last season at a significant cost: a reported 18
million pounds from Belgian club Anderlecht. Barely eighteen when he
arrived, the boy-mountain spent
most of last season on the bench and hated it. Despite
impressing on the Blues' pre-season US

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Short pitch: World T20 offers more than entertainment

I make it a practice never to feel that sorry for professional athletes: they earn spectacular coin for doing what they love.  There are attendant sacrifices, but that's inherent in any achievement.  Perhaps the most obvious of these is a limited career length: even the best only sustain elite standards for ten, fifteen years at best.

Twenty/20 cricket is one of those sports which doesn't seem

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Vale, Matthew Scarlett

Matthew Scarlett has retired from AFL football.  By doing so, we must farewell a brilliant - if genuinely odd - champion of the sport.  He is joined in retirement by Premiership teammates Joel Corey and David Wojcinski.  The trio - Scarlett especially - leave behind many fond memories of the wonderful Cats era of 2007-2012.

And as Scarlett ambles into the Torquay half-light, the accompanying

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