When I first read that McLaren had been charged with spying I wondered just how low the England boss could stoop in his efforts to save his career.

It was only after getting past the headline I realised they were, in fact, talking about the Formula 1 team rather than the ginger-haired man who is allegedly the international football coach.

Apparently, one of McLaren’s senior designers was caught in possession of a Ferrari design book, which sounds particularly naughty.

However, although we don’t know all the ins and outs of this particular spying scandal, and we probably never will, it sounds to me like a lot of fuss over nothing.

From what I understand, and from what I read, designers swap teams all the time in this sport. Only last week I believe one of Toyota’s top men upped and joined Honda.

So what happens in that case? Do they have their brains erased before they are allowed to swap teams? I think not. They turn up for their new job full of ideas and innovations gleaned from their old one.

I realise that actually being caught with somebody else’s documents is extremely incriminating but I would have thought this was a sport in which the teams are used to seeing their ideas pop up on other people’s cars.

Either way this particular incident looks like it could spell disaster for Lewis Hamilton as he, and the whole McLaren team, look like they could be deducted points or even banned from the rest of the season if found guilty.

There is a moral to this story: if you are going to steal documents from a rival, don’t leave them lying round on your coffee table when you have friends over to visit.

Surely that’s the first thing they teach you at spy school…

Sven’s return

By the end of Manchester City’s 3-1 victory over Doncaster at the weekend, the City fans were singing Sven’s name ensuring him a warm return to club management.

As appointments go, this was not what you would have described as the most popular one in the history of this club. And it could so easily have become a situation where the fans wanted him to fail in order to get rid of him quickly.

However, it seems the opposite has occurred – the Manchester City faithful have decided to adopt an ‘us against the world’ mentality, very similar to the one which Sheffield United enjoyed with Neil Warnock.

The way it works is this: the more your manager is hated by the rest of the league, the more you get behind him.

Looks like old Sven has landed on his feet once again. I swear, with the exception of quarter-finals, this man has more luck than a field full of four leaf clovers.

Sheffield United

Having lost our High Court appeal last week, it looks like Sheffield United are doomed to a pauper’s life in the Championship next season.

Our chairman looks like he wants to continue the fight, having already lost two rounds, by taking the case to the civil courts in a bid to seek compensation.

If that’s what he feels is the right course of action then he should follow it. There is no doubt in my mind that we have been cheated out of a year of Premiership football and all the financial trappings that go with it.

More importantly, I have been cheated out of the possibility of watching United on TV every weekend.

And that alone has got to be worth suing someone over.

British football

This is certainly turning into a summer of discontent for British football. First, and still, we had, and have, the on-going, ridiculous Carlos Tevez affair which is gradually proving the Premier League are losing control of the game they are supposed to run.

Now we have three top clubs raided by police as part of an investigation into corruption in the game. On the positive side it at least gives us something to read about as we await the start of the new season.

On the negative side all these negative stories are wearing away at the image of soccer in Britain in general and England in particular.

The three clubs involved in the raids are Newcastle, Portsmouth and Rangers and that is about all we know so far. The police have been particularly sketchy over the details: which leads me to believe this could just be the tip of the iceberg.

All England needs now is a good match-fixing and referee-tampering scandal and we should be on course to win next summer’s European Championship….

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