Cameron Carter looks at the stature of the Europa League’s coverage on Channel 5, while Roy Keane tries to make it as a pundit

Some job descriptions change so gradually, the subject barely notices they are being exploited. This phenomenon, known in business circles as “task curving”, explains why the ashen-faced train manager punching your ticket is also the voice telling you “carriage haitch will not platform at Dawlish” and the figure humping boxes of Carlsberg onto the buffet car at Exeter. Channel 5 make the most of their staff in the same way.

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Football managers do the game no favours when they back their own players at all costs

In a tumultuous year of revolutions, natural disasters and financial crises, one of the most shocking moments came in the final fortnight of 2011 when Chelsea showed some common sense. That is rare at a club whose officials have to pretend it is run as a regular business rather than at the whim of a billionaire. In December, however, they emerged from their cocoon to show an awareness of the world around them. Chelsea players were apparently keen to wear T-shirts showing their support for John Terry after it was announced he will face criminal charges in February for alleged racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand. Manager Andre Villas-Boas had already declared that Terry will get his full support “whatever the outcome”, whereas his employers took a step back, saying: “We did not think that the wearing of T-shirts was an appropriate or helpful show of support.”

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The money that added flair to Manchester City’s functionality has put Barney Ronay in a quandary

Imagine how boring being a billionaire must be. Not so much the process of becoming a billionaire, which is presumably studded with the thrill of ticking off those billionaire-entry marks: beachhouse-overload, mistress-profligacy, servant-saturation. But just being a billionaire, sealed within your own frictionless seven-star world, conveyed by helicopter gunship from lobby to suite to private island. This must surely be quite dull.

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