It all happened within a couple of hours last night!

I think the FIFA World rankings list has something like 210 teams in it, which means that close to a quarter of all of the football paying countries that football’s governing body recognises will be competing in the upcoming World Cup Finals to be staged jointly by the USA, Canada and Mexico.

This is one of the reasons why I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a World Cup tournament less than this one (and I can go as far back as 1966 for World Cups I have a memory of watching) – the fact that the tournament will, no doubt, have Donald Trump lording it throughout as if anything memorable that happens is entirely down to him only adds to my lack of enthusiasm for the “extravaganza” we’ll be experiencing through much of the summer.

I must admit though that a general boredom with football is playing a part in my lack of enthusiasm for the World Cup. A set of Play Off Semi Finals which hit no great heights on the drama/entertainment fronts have not helped (only the second leg of the Salford v Grimsby League Two tie had the sort of drama I’d normally associate with the Play Offs). Indeed, I must admit to being much more interested in Glamorgan’s surprisingly bright start to life in Division One of the County Championship than I have been in the final dregs of the the 25/26 domestic football season.

That changed somewhat within a couple of hours last night though when three attention grabbing things happened on the football front.

First, Arsenal were crowned Champions of the Premier League without kicking a ball as Manchester City were spared what would have been a deserved defeat at Bournemouth by an injury team Erling Haaland goal. Nevertheless, a point leaves Pep Guardiola’s side four points adrift of Arsenal going into Sunday’s final set of fixtures.

Normally, I’d be all for a team that has not won the league in twenty two years breaking up the Man City/Liverpool/Chelsea dominance of the title in the last fifteen years or so, but I can’t help thinking that, in Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, one of the least impressive Premier League campaigns of the last thirty odd years has got got the title winner it deserves.

For forty five minutes against Fulham recently, Arsenal showed us the team they can be. However, certainly in the last few weeks of the campaign, it’s been very much a case of carefully does it for Arteta’s men as a series of dull 1-0 wins (not the least being the home victory over already relegated Burnley secured by a set piece goal on Sunday and the VAR assisted win at West Ham the previous week) have seen the Gunners returning to the defensive roots which have characterised the club’s approach for most of my football supporting life.

In saying that, Man City’s never quite fully convincing performances through the period where they’re supposed to see off all opponents as they come through with the late run which usually sweeps them to the title, probably means Arsenal are deserving Champions. For all of the carping of people like me, this could, arguably, turn out to be the Gunners’ best season ever if they could follow up their Premier League win by seeing off PSG in the Champions League Final in ten days time – that seems a long shot to me mind and, hopefully, the “beautiful game” will prevail in Budapest!

I mentioned Bournemouth and, for me, they’ve been, just about, the most watchable team in this season’s Premier League, but, sorry I can’t get too excited with the “battle” between them and Liverpool to secure whatever position they need to qualify for next season’s Champion’s Leaguer (is it fifth or sixth? I really do not know as I lost patience with the whole thing when it became four teams from one country competing in a tournament meant to be for Champions!). No, my interest will be at the bottom of the table as we find out which one out of two teams who really should be nowhere near the relegation zone, Spurs and West Ham, will be playing in the Championship next year.

Spurs always lose to Chelsea and they duly did so last night once again, by 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. This means that the North London giants will go down if they lose at home to Everton on Sunday and West Ham beat Leeds at home. Such an outcome seems unlikely to me as, much as it sticks in my craw to say this, Leeds have been one of the more watchable teams in the top flight through the second half of the season and have shown a resilience that makes it seem unlikely to me that you’ll get an “already on the beach” type performance from them of the sort you associate with teams that have nothing to play for on the final day of the season – whatever happens at Tottenham, I don’t see West Ham beating Leeds.

Returning to the Play Offs, I thought the second best match among the ones staged in the past week or so was the Second Leg between Southampton and Middlesbrough where the Saints came back from conceding very early on to clinch a 2-1 aggregate win late in extra time. Generally speaking, the standard of play in this Championship Semi Final over the two games was much higher than in the other one between Millwall and Hull where the Tigers won the battle of the big cats with a 2-0 Second Leg win in London and I had Southampton down as big favourites for the Final scheduled for Saturday.

However, the tie against Boro was played out against the backdrop of a rapidly developing story which, of course, had to be called “”Spygate”!

Back in 2019 I think ir was, Leeds got off lightly when one their employees was caught spying on one of their Play Off Semi Final opponents Derby County’s pre match training sessions. Leeds, essentially, got away with it because there was nothing in the EFL’s disciplinary rule book to cover such matters at the time. Now there is and a precedent which saw Canada kicked out of the 2024 Olympics Women’s Football tournament for spying on their upcoming opponents, Australia, suggested a stiff punishment was coming the Saints’ way (the Canadian chief coach also lost her job as a result of the scandal).

Nevertheless, it came as big shock to me to hear last night that Southampton had been expelled from the Play Offs, with Middlesbrough taking their place in the Final and, furthermore, they’ll begin the 26/27 Championship with a four point penalty. Southampton had pleaded guilty to the charges, but what wasn’t known until last night’s verdict was announced was that there were two additional charges for instances of spying by Southampton before they played at Oxford on Boxing Day and at home to Ipswich last month – it’s worth noting that in the games played after the spying incidents, Southampton lost at Oxford and drew with Boro and Ipswich!

With all of the logistical problems such an outcome causes, the appeal against the verdict Southampton are mounting is due to be held today with the outcome to be announced this evening it seems. Therefore this expulsion from what is always called the most expensive game in football (it’s now being reported that victory on Saturday would be worth £200 million to one of the teams taking part) might well have been reversed by this time tomorrow.

I admit that was my feeling when I first heard about Southampton’s expulsion last night as it did strike me at first as being a bit OTT. However, I had my mind changed by something a Southampton fan of all people said in a podcast I’ve listened to this morning. His argument was that people are saying the punishment is overly harsh because of the sums of money involved and the footballing prize on offer for the winner – if, say, a team had been chucked out for spying on their next opponents in the Vertu Trophy, no one would have batted an eyelid.

I agree with that and so I would say that the odds are probably on the punishment being endorsed by the Appeal panel (consisting of different individuals from the original one) with the possibility of some additional punishment (a further points deduction?) on the grounds that, having pleaded guilty to all charges, Southampton have acted frivolously in appealing.

So, for now, it seems City will be facing Southampton in the Championship next season, but they will be doing so without the services of Ryan Wintle who won both the Supporters Player of the Season award and the Player’s Player of the Year award less than a month ago. The news emerged yesterday evening that 29 year old Wintle would not be offered a new contract after his current one runs out at the end of next month.

Before going on to Wintle though, I should say that the permanent transfer of Nathan Trott to City was announced about a fortnight ago, presumably for the pre arranged fee of £1.5 million. Although there had been stories claiming that Trott had turned down City’s initial offer, I was always confident that the deal would go through despite speculation that other Championship clubs were looking at him. Frankly, it was clear that BBM rated him highly and, let’s face it, the keeper made a great start to the season which meant that, although his form plateaued somewhat over the following months, he did nothing to dispel the very favourable impression he made in the opening weeks of the campaign.

Also, earlier this week it was confirmed that one of the soon to be out of contract trio of first teamers, Perry Ng, had signed a two year extension on his deal, while we still await news on the third of them Joel Bagan.

The news on Wintle has been confirmed though by both the player and the club. My immediate messageboard response was to deem the decision “ridiculous” based primarily on the opinion that, as the winner of, arguably, the two most prestigious end of season awards concerning a team that has won promotion, you just do not let such a player go on a free.

I was a bit surprised to be in the minority with my response, but, having had a night to sleep on it, I now believe I was hasty to deem the decision ridiculous even though I still think it’s a wrong one.

Initially, I suspected that the decision to let Wintle go was a financial one possibly coming from the top of the club, but it seems that it is very much a BBM decision. Many of those supporting the decision on the messageboard conceded that Wintle had been excellent in League One, he had not been fully convincing in the Championship with City, while it was noticeable how little game time he got on loan to a Millwall team which finished in the top half of the second tier in 24/25.,

Those are reasonable arguments. I’d also agree that BBM has built up a considerable amount of credit with supporters during his time here and so many are prepared to trust his judgment and accept his decision. As someone who has found little to criticise oue manager about in the last twelve months, I can understand that view and come pretty close to accepting it. However, as someone who believes that BBM has done what the really good managers do – that is, improve players he inherits when he arrives at a new club – I would argue that the Ryan Wintle of 2026 in the Championship with Cardiff City might well have turned out to be an improvement on the player we had here during the early years of this decade under lesser managers.

What seems clear though is that our manager must have player(s) already in mind as Wintle replacements and while he has re-emphasised his quality over quantity approach to player recruitment, I can only assume that he is being backed by Vincent Tan in terms of getting a replacement for the ex Crewe man as I wouldn’t have thought any one who would represent a definite improvement in the number six role will come cheap.

There has been quite widespread media speculation about one midfielder who is being reportedly tracked by Lincoln, Blackburn and Sheffield Wednesday, but the Reading Chronicle is claiming that City are “leading the race” to sign Welsh international Charlie Savage who is , seemingly, available at £800,000 as he enters the last year of his contract with the Royals.

Savage has been a regular selection for Reading in recent years and had featured in every league match for the Royals before he missed the last three games of the season with an injury picked up in the defeat at Doncaster. It seems that back in January, Oxford had a bid of £500,000 for him turned down while there was reported interest from the likes of Birmingham and Wrexham in him at that time.

Therefore, it appears that Savage is ready for the step up to the Championship, but, to give a City comparison, he was in front of Joel Colwill in the Wales pecking order for midfield positions when this season began and has been overtaken by Rubin’s younger brother now – on the face of it then, Savage does not look like a player who can come in and immediately start improving on Ryan.Wintle’s level of performance for now at least.

I’ll finish by wishing Ryan Wintle all of the best for the rest of his career (I’m sure there’ll be plenty of teams interested in. him in the top half League One, bottom half Championship levels and, maybe, even one or two higher than that). My final thought is that while I’m, reluctantly, prepared to trust BBM to pull another Trott or Kellyman type deal out (I’d only rate Gabriel Osho as a partial success at the moment), I can’t help thinking the reaction to letting Wintle go would have been a lot different if any other of our recent managers had done it – BBM has to now show he really is as good as most of us think he is.