Mark Quayle is 25. He is the only Scarborough player who cost a fee. Quayle, scorer of the only goal in the third round FA Cup tie against Southend United, cost precisely £2 000. His goal has earned the little seaside town a guaranteed payday of about £400 000 as they take on Chelsea.

After the build-up week, Scarborough’s match against Chelsea will be easy — Malcolm Reynolds trusts that any last-minute hitches will be ironed out on Friday – such as the thorny question of how to accommodate everyone in the sub-6 000 capacity grounds where Saturday’s tickets, all sold, went for between £10 and £25.

When Luis Figo speaks, the whole of Portugal listens. Signed from Barcelona for £40-million three years ago, he was crucial to Real Madrid’s mission of bringing the world’s best players together at one club. Barcelona fans will never forgive Figo for selling his soul to Real Madrid in the summer of 2000.

Ivan Campo is the Spaniard who is proving to be a cut above for Bolton as they challenge for honours. At Real Madrid Campo had lost faith in his ability in the profession he had chosen to make his living, a crisis that affected his private life.
“In Bolton I managed to be again what I used to be,” he says.

I visited Highbury for the umpteenth time on Tuesday with the towering youths who infest my house, masquerading as children. After watching the table-topping Gunners slide to a 1-0 defeat in the first leg of the League Cup semifinal, their first loss in 30 games on the domestic scene, I came to three logical conclusions.