The picture of the Duke of Windsor performing a Nazi salute in Germany in 1937 is far more telling than those of Princess Elizabeth performing the same act in her back garden in 1933.

Writing your name on a piece of paper is of no consequence. Unless that piece of paper is a cheque for £273,487.57p. Same action, different context, different consequences. Though only if you have that much in the bank. Unlike Greece.

Because the Duke was an adult, surrounded by Nazis, with whom he looks remarkably comfortable, and, sadly like most aristocratic Brits, he loved them. But most importantly, this was just months before Krystallnacht and by then the Jews of Germany had been segregated and yellow-starred and most folks knew to some extent what was going on.

Also, its worth stating, that Edward VIII (as he was for a few days) was a nob. Who gave up the throne (thank God, or who knows which side we’d have been fighting on in the war) for a divorced American bitch, herself a strong Nazi supporter.

But what’s all that got to do with the price of footballlers?

Absolutely nothing.

The Everton full-back John Stones is being ‘courted’ by Chelsea. The courtship, as is, may look more like buying a high price call-girl for the night than anything gentle and loving, but they’ve had a 30 million pound offer refused by Everton and intend to go higher.

Jose Morinho summed it up rather nicely when he stated that ‘smaller clubs’ can do very nicely growing young, English talent and then, obviously, selling them to… to… well, selling them to Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City or possibly Arsenal.

Making Everton, for all its history and pedigree, nothing like a ‘big club’. So really, without wishing to sound too Ed Miliband about this, the division is really between the ‘Rich’ clubs and the ‘Poor’ ones. And the market for British players is really premium as all clubs need domestic representation.

Its known as Southampton Syndrome. The production of wonderful young talent which gets sold for ridiculous sums to ‘big clubs’. All of them. Those that stay on the South Coast do so for very little time, just to showcase their skills before some Oligarch-driven super-club snaps them up to sit on the bench for the next 3 years.

I’m still waiting to see one effect from the ‘financial fair play’ rules that anyone might even notice. Just one.

It’ll all be different under FIFA Nouveau. Just wait. And wait, and wait…

Happy Wednesday

A xxxx