Transfer Fees

I have spent most of the evening watching BBC Sport's live text of Transfer Deadline Day. The BBC really offer a brilliant service here, but what's amazing is the amount of money being spent on players. Torres for £50m, Carroll for £35m, Suarez for £23m and they are only the big ones. Can football, or more importantly, the clubs, afford to maintain this level of spending on individuals like this. And we haven't even mentioned the wages!

Torres: class player but exceptionally injury prone.
Carroll: been in trouble with the law back home in Newcastle and currently injured, meaning that presumably the medical has been waived.
Suarez: unproven in English football.

I have a real fear that English football will collapse financially if clubs continue spending at this rate, and to think that Chelsea are tightening their belt. They can tighten it a whole lot more now that they are £50m lighter!

As many have siad on various social networking sites - if Carroll is worth £35m, how much would people pay for Messi?

The mind boggles!

Kevin Muscat Tackling School

A true loss to English football. The claim that he got the ball is brilliant and one can only assume that his Equity Card is in the post! You won't be surprised to hear that he was banned for 8 games for the offence. A Sussex boy - born in Crawley.

Poor old Andy Murray

I would never claim to like tennis, in fact I have been known to be positively anti-tennis, but I have to admit that I watch Andy Murray's destruction at Melbourne by Novak Djokovic. You could argue that the Scot (he'd have been described as a Brit had he won!) tried his best, but the Serb was frankly too good. Tennis is not a game I watch very often, with Wimbledon fortnight leading to unplugged televisions at our house, but since it was a Brit (fair play to the lad) who was in with a chance of winning a "slam" one had to offer one's support. Fat lot of good it was though. To see our Andy so totally stuffed was not a pleasant experience for anyone, and I'm sure that his chances of winning a "slam" will be discussed immensely in the press over the next few days. Not only has Djokovic hit his straps but there are others such as Nadal and Federer for Murray to contend with.

I hope he does win one eventually, I really do, but on his showing today, that elusive "slam" seems a long way away!