Tim is playing a mug’s game

TIM SHERWOOD pointed aggressively at referee Mark Brown and repeatedly called him a “f **** g mug”. Reading these type of transcripts makes you realise just what an unusual, restrained type you have to be, if you want to make it as a football official. It’s hard to imagine Brown didn’t just want to land one on him. Sherwood (left), proving a roaring success as Swindon Town’s director of football, was given a two-game stadium ban for his rant.

Ahead of that suspension, the Robins had won twice in 15 matches.

With Sherwood banished, they won two in two. On his return, they have lost four on the spin.

And the mug is who exactly?

HE likes a principle, Arsene Wenger.

And now that contract talks with Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez have been put on hold, it will be interesting to see if he sticks by the one that insists he would allow them to leave for free in 2018 rather than sell them this summer.

Assuming Wenger stays, he should not – because in different ways, his two marquee players have let him down.

Ozil’s interest has waned, Sanchez has become self-obsessed. Get what you can for them, spend it, move on.

ISN’T it funny how we consistently denigrate the French league and then have a mass scramble for their players every single summer? Gareth Southgate is right. We really should get off our island more.