We love a Sheikh, us football fans. Can’t get enough. Man City have got one, and you can’t get more successful than them. Newcastle have got one and look how brilliantly they’ve improved since his arrival! And now Man United might get their own. I never knew there were so many Sheikhs in the world.

Obviously, you don’t want a poor one. And why would you? When so many apparently have more gold than Midas. (The legendary king, not the exhaust pipe centres).

Man City’s is from Abu Dhabi. In fact, its probably safe to say that Sheikh Mansoor IS Abu Dhabi. Newcastle’s is from Saudi Arabia but only ‘represents the state’ when it absolutely suits him to and he can gain an advantage from that status. Otherwise he remains ‘completely independent from it’. For tax purposes.

And the man bidding for Manchester United is from Qatar. His family is worth 275 billion. Don’t know if that’s pounds or dollars but does it make any difference? Its the zeroes that count. And I must confess to not personally knowing Sheikh Jassim, I’m sure he’s a lovely man. And perhaps, unlike the others so titled, he may be honourable, honest and totally transparent in his financial dealings within the football world.

He’s promised, in what is claimed as his ‘5th and final bid to buy United’, to settle their debt. And because the club has been (mis-)managed for the last 18 years by the horrendous Glazer family, that debt is now so close to a billion quid that any change would barely buy you a superyacht. But that is the Glazer’s business model. Buy a sports team with money borrowed by the team, rake off ‘profits’ every year then sell the club for an immense profit without settling the initial debt, which remains with the club. How that is legal I really don’t understand, but its what they do.

Sheikhs don’t do that. They don’t need to. The word ‘debt’ does not exist in Sheikh-language.

Spurs didn’t get a Sheikh, we got an Aussie. And West Ham won a European cup last night, once again showing that fans don’t have to be in any way ‘nice’ or even ‘decent’ to enjoy footballing success.

Happy Thursday

A xxxx