Following a summer break we are returning for another winter of opinion and debate. We could claim that we were away bailing water from flooded houses, taking the world by storm as real journalists or on the best holiday ever. All that would of course be lies of a magnitude normally only ever scaled by politicians.

We were in fact playing sport, or in Jonnos case, lying in hospital recovering from sport. This only accounts for the British wing of the team however. If anyone in New Zealand knows where Fergie is, tell him the English Football team are missing their most generous critic.