Don’t follow the money too far - you won’t like what you find.

The first thing to do this week is congratulate the GOAT on another extra-ordinary record. Now he’s the greatest goal scorer ever - well, if you ignore Pele’s 1279 - which FIFA do. The Guinness Book of Records doesn’t. That’s why the argument will never be settled.

But either way, Ronaldo’s is an extra-ordinary achievement. He deserved a whack last week. I stand by my view that it was a mistake to take him back to OT - but he’s also been my favourite player of his generation.

Like all ageing sporting superstars - he can’t regularly do what he used to anymore. But, he’s still capable of memorable moments - like Saturday‘s performance. It was a fantastic hat-trick.

I think it was Rio Ferdinand who said recently that Ronaldo was re-signed to win the FA Cup. I was surprised to read that. Why? The FA Cup? Surely not? But if he wins them the CL then all the tantrums, going MIA last weekend, and all his attention seeking trips to the Post Office with his body guards, will have made it worthwhile. In a KO competition of course that’s still possible.

According to the Sunday Mirror this weekend - Everton are for sale. Who’d have thought? I should’ve mentioned that 3/4 months ago. 😂😂.

Eddie Howe was right - nailed on pen at The Bridge. Will Mike Riley be calling him this week? Will he call Dean Smith? Don’t hold your breath. There’s no way Mike Dean should’ve overruled Stuart Attwell at Elland Road. Clear and obvious error? I hate the phrase - but  absolutely not. It was a pen. Incidentally - the same two couldn’t see the most blatant red of the season at Brighton. That was an assault by Sanchez on Diaz. What chance have we got?

VAR made the calls - not the refs. It’s always VAR that makes the big decisions. I keep telling you this. Riley has instructed everybody that VAR decides. Refs know this when they’re ‘called’ to the monitor. It’s wrong. Totally wrong. We need transparency. We have GOT to hear those conversations at the monitors. I was glad Arsene Wenger agreed with me when he appeared on BeINSPORTS this past weekend.  He’ll make it happen.

Oh. And Klopp is right. We’ve got to remove the ridiculous ‘clear and obvious’ phrase from the game. We’ve got the technology now - so use it properly. 

Why are the British govt trying to destroy Chelsea? I thought they wanted an independent regulator to ensure that the sort of damage we see being inflicted at Chelsea doesn’t happen anymore? To make certain   that what happened at Bury could never happen again. That what’s happening at Derby would never happen again. What hypocrisy.

I get it. They want to go after Abramovich. I understand why. But what have they discovered about him that they didn’t know two weeks ago? Why did it take them that long to impose sanctions? Two years ago? Twenty years ago? Twenty-one trophies ago? I’d love to know.

There’s a lot of tribal triumphalism about what’s happening at Chelsea. Football fans are loving it. Look. It’s a good club. It’s populated by good football people. Why should the programme seller, the steward, the bar staff, the caterer, the bus driver, the grounds staff have their livelihoods threatened? What have they done wrong? What about the fans? What have they done wrong? Fans taunted this weekend by Newcastle supporters. Really? Newcastle fans! Boris Johnson and his cronies worked the back channels to make sure the Saudi’s got what they wanted at St James’ Park - now he’s gone all ‘ethical’.

I wonder if he noticed 81 people were executed in Saudi Arabia 24 hours before Newcastle played at Chelsea? Has he heard about the war in Yemen?Where conservative estimates suggest 233,000 people have been killed? 10,000 children are estimated to have been killed or maimed - four million people made homeless. Twenty four million are needy of aid. Ah. I guess he has because he’s selling British arms to the Saudi’s to fight that war - and this week he wants payback for getting MBS Newcastle - he’s flying to Riyadh to beg for more fuel supplies.

What about Evgeny Lebedev - The Lord Lebedev - son of the former KGB operative Alexander? Nice guy’ says Michael Gove. ‘And you can’t blame children for their parents sins’. Perhaps he is a nice guy - but he’s carrying on the work of his father - financed by his father. So yes - you can Mr Gove.

The Lord Lebedev owns the London Evening Standard. He backed Johnson’s campaign to get re-elected as Mayor. Ker-ching. Payback. Johnson put him in the House of Lords when he became PM - against all the advice of the British security services.

Has anyone looked closely at the list of prospective buyers of Chelsea? Or is it best not to? I’ve got a feeling we might not like what we find. But if they’re involved in the ‘right’ projects or they’re fighting the ‘right’ wars - that’s ok it seems.

Sadly politics and sport are now intrinsically linked. Ex PL chief exec Richard Scudamore got out of town before all this started to become an issue. He didn’t care who owned what as long as the rights kept going up and his bonus got paid. 

The hypocrisy knows no bounds. And it stinks.