Foxes coach is a poor excuse

without penalty-taking becoming infected. So perhaps anyone thinking of going down a similar road to Manchester United’s midfielder should consider a couple of things. The first is that it will be hated. It’s one thing Pogba doing it in the Champions League, it’s another altogether for Barnsley’s finest to be doing it against Oxford United.

Secondly, if you come up with something, you really need to score.

There’s enough pressure on any penalty-taker as it is without the spotlight focused on their gambolling or shoe-shuffling.

The ball hitting the net is the only performance that punters really want to see – not some fluffy show that almost demands marks out of 10 for artistic impression. WORD escaped the King Power Stadium following Leicester City’s thumping at Bournemouth that the players were unhappy they weren’t flown from the East Midlands to the south coast.

The Foxes were on the end of a four-goal thumping and it emerged that they had to undertake a fivehour coach journey. And this wasn’t ideal preparation. Perhaps it would have been better to have flown. It is certainly more expensive to fly, rather than take a coach. Perhaps the players should have offered to pay the difference if they were that bothered about it.

But if I were on that coach and had the prospect of spending five hours on it going home, I’d be trying my guts out to make sure I wouldn’t be stewing on it for that long after losing. Not offering it up as a firstworld footballing excuse.