Good Guys

So what can we make of this exciting sports news week? Probably my overwhelming feeling is that the British public got what they wanted from the Redknapp/Capello drama, regardless of the rights and wrongs of what occurred.

Capello, with the highest win ratio of any England manager in living memory, was never liked, and few outside the England squad have shown any sense of loss. A man of principles, but many of similar character are also seen as stubborn and distant. On the other side of this proverbial coin, Redknapp.

The most interesting comparison of the week was between ‘arry and Stephen Hester, the CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Both seem to have plenty of personal cash sloshing around, and Hester’s income tax payments are probably squeaky clean. But the public have made their mind up on both figures, seemingly contrary to facts. Hester’s problem is that he was appointed in a different age, when large salaries for successful people were generally accepted. The banker-bashing came later, when his deal (and the calculations included within it) was presumably signed in law. Whilst in no way supportive of the business culture involved, he does seem to have drawn a very short straw in public perception.

In comparison, Redknapp’s business dealings seemed headscratching. As one of the self-employed population of this isle, I should theoretically have a fairly complicated tax arrangement. But at the end of each year, I simply deduct some fairly straightforward expenses from my income, and then pay a hefty chunk of tax on the balance, all as calculated by an HMRC spreadsheet. I rarely bob over to Monaco, and limit my benefits in kind to use of the odd business wifi network. Where Harry played a blinder was in having his case heard in front of a jury. A magistrate would probably have seen past the huge amount of bluster, although I haven’t studied the evidence in enough depth to know whether a more analytical approach would have found a different verdict. But the jury lapped up his ‘commoner’ testimony, and they’d probably have awarded him a knighthood if it had been in their powers.

Harry belongs to that group of people who the public will forgive over and over again, because they’re seen as ‘one of us’. Gazzer, Frank Bruno, George Best, Ronnie O’Sullivan. All populist, all men that the public can believe in as someone like them. With faults and quibbles, but who you wouldn’t mind a pint down the local with. And that seems to be more important than dull facts. For an England manager to have the literacy skills 'of a two year old' seems unlikely, but yet most parties seem happy to accept it ( or accept that they don't believe everything Harry says ). And living in a city where the population voted into power a magazine editor best known for being the fall guy on Have I Got News For You, then the good guys can clearly go a long way.

Anyone for a swift half with Fabio?