When members of the Tottenham board went over to Spain to talk to Juande Ramos about his position at Sevilla, they were doing nothing wrong. If you are the chairman of a business and believe you can replace, say, your very decent marketing manager with someone better you wouldn’t fire them and then see what you can attract. You would sound out prospects that are, in your opinion, better and if one of them agrees to come on board you fire your current manager only once you have signed the replacement.

The vilification of the Spurs board by the club’s fans is largely for their lying about the whole mess instead of being open and, by failing to immediately throw their unequivocal support behind Martin Jol, leaving the much-loved manager in an untenable position. Ultimately BMJ might have still had a chance of getting morale back into the Tottenham camp if not for the daily hounding and speculation of the press as to his demise.

When England finally got rid of Sven Goran Eriksson for under-achieving, being dull and having sex with attractive women, their preferred new man was Luiz Felipe Scolari. He was tagged. He was bagged. He was on his way to London. Then he encountered the British press and the man immediately, and with some justification, made an about-turn. The British press were invasive and prone to writing popular fiction rather than the news.

'Would it not be good if every British paper were required to carry, large, at the top of their sports page, a percentage rating of how many of their speculative stories came true?'

It was the British press which viciously tore apart a young England player for a single mistake. It might well have killed David Beckham’s love for the game and destroyed his career. He wasn’t even 21 at the time and England could have lost the young man who turned into one of their most important players in the following 10 years.

According to the British press, Arsene Wenger’s career at Arsenal was over last year. He was done. How many times has Sir Alex Ferguson been “on his way?” Rafa Benitez and Big Sam Allardyce are the latest managers to be targeted. Yet there have been no noises from the Liverpool or Newcastle boards about dissatisfaction.

Dimitar Berbatov has been the latest victim on the playing field. By all accounts a mild-mannered, quiet gentleman, he settled down and did great things in his first season in the England. He tried desperately to keep away from the press.