Barclay Talks Sport

This ruling by the FA's arbitration idiots allows anyone to blame anyone else for their short comings.

Let's get away from all the bluster about Carlos Tevez's transfer to West Ham a couple of seasons ago, its legality etc and look at what the judgement means. It means that Sheffield United can claim £30 million on the back of assumption and conjecture. Worse still, they have been allowed to blame their mulitple failings in their Premier League season on someone else.

To say that Carlos Tevez is the sole reason they got relegated is to view the rest of the season as some sort of fantasy land where results didn't matter. Sheffield United had 38 games in which to score enough points to stay up. They did not. Never mind what other teams didor did not do. They were not good enough to stay up.

Sure, West Ham staged a remarkable recovery but can it be proved beyond any doubt that this would not have happend without Tevez? Of course it can't. It's a kind of retrospective crystal ball gazing and does football no credit whatever. The fact is that the FA should have punished West Ham more severely during the season. They chose not to. Yes West Ham broke the rules and have already paid. Everything else is irrelevant and cannot be proved.

What next, a relegated club taking another side to court because they claim an injury to a player was instrumental in their downfall? Because fouling a player is against the riles too, is it not?

I am now considering launching an appeal against Ipswich Town's last relegation. I shall conveniently ignore the fact that we were bloody useless for half the season and examine footage until I discover an erroneous decision that might have prevented a goal that would therefore have changed a result and made someone lose and someone else win and so muck up someone's mental attitude so they lost their next match and so didn't get enough points and so we should have finished 17th. See?

Bollocks.

Andy Murray's phenomenal victory against Rafael Nadal has delivered the prospect of a first British singles Grand Slam winner since Fred Perry way back when tennis players wore long trousers and smoked cigarettes between games.

But never mind the history stuff. What this victory demonstrates is Murray's fantastic progress in the last six months. His fitness, speed, reactions, shot locker, serve, everything has improved to the extent that he can match and beat the very best in the world.

Peter Fleming called it a 'coming of age' and that's dead right. Murray out-muscled Nadal. I've not seen anyone do that before. His power hitting, his accuracy and his doggedness in defence proved a wining combination and it backs up my belief that he will reach number one in the world. Sooner rather than later. Way back in this blog I said he'd be no1 by the time he was 21. Well, he's reached no4 and he's lost almost a season through injury too. So I'm feeling relatively smug about my prediction.

Can he beat Federer? Yes. And if he plays like he did against Nadal (the extremely gracious and sporting Nadal, by the way) he will win. Simple as that. Nadal, world no1, had no consistent answer to Murray and Federer will wilt under the bombardmant. But the Swiss has experience and genius on his side. It should be a great US Open Final.

Oh, and a word on the anti-Murray morons. Fine. Have your opinion, just keep it to yourself. Y'know, I support teams who play Scotland at football but that doesn't stop me supporting a Scot who is flying Britain's flag whether he hates English football or not. He should do. He's Scottish for god's sake. Any parochial little England armchair sports prat who cannot see what a talent we have and is unable to support it needs to wonder why it is that so many British talents never make it.

People like you, that's why. Because you can't wait to find fault. Celebrate the success of this justly proud British Scotsman. Examine why he is on his way to the summmit of men's tennis. Yes he is arrogant. Thank heavens for that. Yes, he is grumpy and unlikeable at times. He's 21. Jeez. And you know, he isn't there to make everyone love him. He's there to win tennis matches. Bloody good at it he is too.

Come on, Andy.