This week John gets a bit provocative about the need for change within the game and, to be brutal, why a club needs to fail to garner the necessary changes! And why it needs to be a big club. He doesn’t mention Manchester United, but we know what he’s thinking.

Following on from the success of the Duchess of Sussex taking over editorial duties for the September edition of Vogue magazine, we have this week allowed the renowned philatelist, Edward Stanley Gibbons to take over from John Ashton, our usual contributor. Now you may know that Stanley originally trained as a chemist but we should emphasise that there is no foundation in any of the stories that he in any way used this training when seeing his four wives die, and be replaced, in short order. The fact that Stanley died in interesting circumstances, or that this was in 1913, shouldn’t be used to spoil the joke that is this week’s column!

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This week John, who is clearly in a rush to get to the Chorley Cricket Club Beer Festival, is banging the ‘fund-raising’ drum – reminding everyone that we Poolies need a Plan B – as we can’t forever rely on the largesse and patience of Raj Singh.