Rock and a hard place...

Daughter txt me to tell me that she'd been relieved of her money by a thief at Carling Leeds. Then turned her phone off, leaving me stewing for a couple of hours while she was no doubt in a tent listening to some obscure dreadful metal act. During which time I was hatching all kinds of plans regarding parachuting money and food parcels in to enable her survival at Bramham Park. "I'll live," read her reply, when it eventually came, to my offer of an emergency response.

What a nice man Garry Cook, Manchester City's executive chairman, appears to be. Do you need the benefit of the doubt? Garry will give it to you - here's what he has to say about Thaksin Shinawatra: "Is he a nice guy? Yes. Is he a great guy to play golf with? Yes. Does he have plenty of money to run a football club? Yes. I really care only about those three things."