After watching Everton join the rest of our Premier League Chumps by crashing out of the ‘Thursday Cup’ I waited for ‘Super Sunday’ to see what the difference was between the Spanish and English league.  Okay, I already knew that Barcelona and Real Madrid haves the far superior individuals, although if you listen to the Everton manager, Roberto Martinez, you’d think that we were the untouchables. I heard him talk before the 5-2 thrashing by the Russians last week and wondered what drugs his doctor has been providing him with?

These managers think that they are talking to complete idiots when you stick a microphone in front of the.  Give the coaching badge and a mike and you have Stand-Up-Comedian of a different kind. He is too young to know that we used to watch Morecambe and Wise, Les Dawson and Tommy Cooper, and if Eric Morecambe was still alive I’m certain he would not want him around his beloved Luton Town.

Anyhow, his Everton team were blown away, and I missed the 7/4 odds given by those generous bookmakers – if they’re generous England will win the upcoming European Championships. So it was on to the weekend where I sat through a very thrilling Liverpool match where Steven Gerrard disproved that ‘there is no substitute for substitute with experience’ by getting sent-off after 38 seconds, yeah, you don’t need glasses, 38 seconds.  Maybe he had his mind on New York, his next p call, where he’ll join up with Frank Lampard, to players who have been legendary heroes at their clubs here in England, but leave with nothing to show for over 200 caps on the international stage in terms of giving our supporters anything to shout about for over the three World Cups they spanned.

I said in my first book ‘The Working’s Man Ballet’ that in 1970 I was quoted as saying that was the last the world will see of us in a final of any top competition, only little did I know then though, that they would be coming home early with millions in the pockets, something that rankles me, after all they promise those travelling fans that follow them from Wembley to South Africa.

Now for the greatest disappointment of the season so far, as we watched the two sets of players in the Nou Camp tunnel all but kissing and cuddling one another 15b minutes before bringing a new meaning to what will be shown on TV as ‘Come Dive with Me’. This was the worst advertisement for La Liga that you could possibly expect to see, and had I been referee I would have brought the two captains together with half an hour to go and told them “every dive from now on will get a red card” which is a little different from the ones given in the Olympic Pool. Who is to blame? For starters, the two managers, and then the referee for allowing them to get away with it and if it is not looked into by UEFA then lo and behold, we will soon be watching football matches where football becomes secondary with a talking point of who was the best diver?

The terrible thing is that in our day players played with incredible injuries and still kept their feet, and this truly left a bad taste in the mouth of the man who waits in expectancy of a classic, as it is promoted.  I dare to think what these players would have dome in that proper classic Chelsea  v Leeds United, FA Cup final replay of 1970, where a modern day referee watched a video of it and said ‘today it would have up a five-a-side.

This was the biggest disappointment and I only happy that I was not one of the 99,000 football fans inside this stadium.  The thing is, I would have been in the bar opposite after 30 minutes as you could see it building into something that you don’t expect from a match like this.  These two teams are very much involved in the Champions League and as they were playing last night I thought, I will not be watching that, if this is anything to go by.

The most disappointing thing about it all I kept channel hopping hoping that they brought the semi-finals on the Cricket World Cup forward. The four semi-finalists New Zealand Australia, India and South Africa are all in cracking form and they’ll be no chance of you sitting down and being disappointed here…all of a sudden footballers seem as if they cannot be touched, but if they were threatened to stop their money and give to a worthwhile charity for every dive they make, do you think they might think twice?

Player of the ‘Non’ Super Sunday’ was undoubtedly Juan Mata for his display of a pure football, great goals and keeping both his head and his feet 0 he is surely better than Mikel, Ramires and Oscar at Chelsea, only Jose Mourinho can answer that, but I don’t need telling, I already know.