Barclay Talks Sport

As expected Andy Murray, British no1 and world no 11 is out of the French Open with the wrist injury that put him out of Hamburg last week. While it's a great shame, Tim Henman had it right - he cannot risk more injury to such a vital area and missing tournaments now (even, dare I whisper, Wimbledon) is infinitely preferable to long term injury and early retirement. Murray is 20. He has a decade and more at the top to look forward to. And he'll still be no1 by the time he's 21. Don't rush back, be fit first.

Now look, I'm a cricket fan. A big cricket fan. But you will never see me stand up and claim that day three of a test match is more exciting that a football match. Except today. I'm sorry but the FA Cup Final was boring. Dull, dull, yawn dull, snore. Chelsea won it with the only move of any merit in the match and that was after 118 minutes. The frist half was so numbing that I turned over to see the last overs before tea at the Lords Test Match. There was more passion on display there, I can tell you. The Cup Final got talked up in the second half and there was an improvement but that's a bit like saying that being alive is better than being dead and expecting everyone to be impressed at your incisiveness. Nothing could hide the fact that this was a match played by two 'titans' who were far more scared of losing than they were excited about winning. It just goes to show that this showpiece desperately needs romance to engender passion. By which I mean, it needs an underdog.

Allan Donald has indicated he'd love the opportunity to work with England's fast bowlers. I trust the extremely generous contract is already being couriered to his door. Or perhaps he is being invited to write his own. One of the very, very best fast bowlers of recent generations would be a huge bonus to England's crop of talented but under-performing pace men. To miss out on him would be a crime.

Now this is just silly. I know Sheff Utd are unhappy about being relegated and all that stuff but requesting that the league be expanded to 21 teams to keep them in the prem is plain stupid. Next they'll be arguing that points tallies souldn't decide who goes down, it should be number of corners in a season. Some measure that would leave them 17th anyway. Time to let this go, Blades and focus on getting back up at the first attempt.

Let's be quite clear about this. The reason this Tevez and West Ham affair won't go away is purely money driven. Had the Hammers been relegated, there would have been much sage nodding about just desert and that would have been that. They didn't and hence someone else is losing money. More than that, any club that finishes above West Ham should they be deducted points will earn more from their elevated position. I know some of those jumping on the bad wagon aren't affected this way but talk is easy and morals are cheap hits in the PR of football.

Sheff Utd's chairman said: 'I feel cheated because losing to Wigan wasn't the root cause of our relegation.' Damn right it wasn't. It was because you didn't score 39 points in 38 games. It was because you lost heavily at times in the season and so your goal difference was one worse than Wigan's if you lost to them 2-1. It has little to do with Tevez and West Ham. I have no axe to grind with Sheff Utd. it is sad for any club (barring Norwich) to be relegated. But you're just clutching at straws here. The Premier league could have levied a points deduction, they were not obliged to do so, and they didn't. I can't see legal action working unless West Ham are found to have provided false information. There lies your only hope and for the sake of the tattered remnants of the game's honour, I pray it is a forlorn one.

The desperation to stay in the Premiership plumbed new depths with the news that several struggling clubs were considering legal action over the West Ham and Carlos Tevez affair. This is more of the same. All of a sudden beleaguered Chairmen and managers have another straw at which to grasp. Surely the Tevez (and Mascherano) deal requires West Ham to be docked points? And in passing and by pure coincidence relegating them and saving Wigan, Fulham and Sheffield United. Too late, alas, for poor Charlton.

The light is switched back on. All of their problems this season can be laid at hte blame of one footballer who didn't want to play for West Ham and went to Liverpool, and another who is admittedly very good but who has had little critical impact until the last few matches. Funny that West Ham's resurgence conincided with the whole team starting to play the Curbishley way. This is overlooked by the strugglers who all forget that you only play West Ham twice. Still, doesn't stop the blinkered gazing to Upton Park to lay blame as opposed to the ground at their feet.

I find this whole saga rather pathetic. None of these clubs would give a monkeys if they were safe from the drop. None of them raised a legal eyebrow at the start of the season. It's like school boys moaning that it isn't fair having not consulted the rules. Rules, incidentally, that they agreed on themselves. All of them have missed the point. Only Wigan manager, Paul Jewell sees it how it is. It's nothing to do with Carlos Tevez, he said, in summary. It's to do with us (Wigan) not playing well enough and winning enough games throughout the whole of the season. Well said from the only man to come out of this thing with any credit in the discordant chorus of whining and crying from other allegedly grown men.

Check this out Failing to agree a new contract? It'll be because he refused the clause which states you can't have hair that is just plain stupid and wear a Boro shirt. Actually, no one should be allowed outdoors with hair like dear Abel's.

My friend Ariel asked me yesterday if I, like Niall Quinn, was astonished by Roy Keane's success as Sunderland manager. And he has done amazingly well.

But astonished? No, not really. After all, I'd play my heart and soul out every week for a man who would probably come round and eat my children if I didn't.

I watched the semi final second leg last night between AC Milan and Manchester United. It was 3-0 to Milan, making them 5-3 aggregate winners. I heard Fergie start to place blame in various places. Correctly at the feet of his shambolic defence and incorrectly at the feet of the FA Premier League for failing to look after English clubs who play in Europe.

Sir Alex, it's like this. If you're fortunate enough to be in charge of a club fighting for the highest honours in domestic and European football, it is your responsibility to make sure you have enough players of the requisite quality to face the battles ahead. You know that if you progress in a cup, it impacts domestic league fixtures and causes congestion. This happens every season so it shouldn't be a surprise.

Look to your big stars. Scholes, Giggs, Ronaldo and Rooney. None of them performed. None of them could spot a pass or shoot on target. None of them appeared able to handle the pressure inside the San Siro. They bottled it. And so you lost.

So, the ICC World Cup drew to a close on Saturday evening in almost complete darkness. It is somehow fitting in a hugely disappointing tournament, that the showpiece should be shrouded in murk as it reached its... well, actually, climax is too grand a term. How about, erm, last three overs. I mean, really. The Sri Lankans went off for bad light (Bad?? That's like calling the Sahara 'dry') with three overs to go. Aussies celebrate a victory only to be told the final 18 balls must be bowled, perhaps tomorrow. Unbelievable. After much ado about farce, the Sri Lankan batsmen reappeared all but carrying miners' helmets and carried on, prodding a pointless few runs. Really daft. I cannot see the governing body of any other sport allowing their grand finale to be so utterly shambolic as it finishes.

One good thing, though, at least it won't have turned any more people off cricket. They all switched channels a long time before...