CRISTIANO Ronaldo doesn’t have to worry about money, so you wonder why he chose to join Al Nassr this week. Certainly, he does not appear to have been willing to swap a little bit of his next salary for a more charming career swansong in somewhere like… Portugal. As he insisted with as straight a face as possible that the Saudi Arabian league was very competitive, he looked more of a mercenary than ever. Worst still, he’s proven Erik ten Hag right – that as much as Ronnie doesn’t want to believe it, he’s just not up to playing at the levels he once did. Of course, this doesn’t mean much while he’s counting the coins, but he shouldn’t be surprised if people say “Messi” in the age-old debate.

• SOL Campbell may have a fair case in wondering why some footballers get New Year’s honours and others don’t. Whether listing why you should get a gong on Twitter is the most considered way to get one is another matter. Campbell should be digging deeper and go further than a rather sulky “why haven’t I got one” tweet, and ask why does an award system with “empire” in the title exist at all. The pick and choose approach to which the Lionesses got awards was just another example of why the whole system is riddled in unfairness and divisiveness. Each year, these awards become more meaningless.

• OH how those halfwit commentators laughed at the apparently barmy World Cup referees who held up 10 minutes of injury time at the end of every game – but at least the players were required to play a full match.
It’s not cheap to buy a Premier League match ticket, so it’s the least we could expect back home here, too. On Tuesday, supporters probably got half a match for their money. Newcastle, unambitious at Arsenal throughout, learned their players could sit on the ground for two or three minutes at a time, at a cost of only about five seconds of injury time. As it happened, the Gunners might not have scored if they had played all night, but those who shell out their hard earned cash every week for a seat in the stands deserve the referees to be better at maths.

• FAREWELL Pele, who I always felt a little sorry for. All of you lot out there told me he was the best player of all time (I’ll let others make the case that Thierry Henry was just as good), but he still ended up behind the counter promoting Subway sandwiches in his later years. We can all understand why Dean Sturridge ended up hawking meatball marinaras but it’s a shame that, say, an average, jobbing Premier League full-back will be better enriched pound-for-pound from their careers than the actual, real life Pele ever was.