Internet site Soccernet carried a puzzling match report on the Alex Ferguson testimonial last week. "The king turned up as well, Eric Cantona . . . throw in the United kids who've swept the board throughout the 1990s and supporters may barely even have noticed that George Weah, Gabriel Batistuta and Zinedine Zidane were playing for the Rest of the World."

Well, they wouldn't have noticed Batistuta and Zidane, would they, because they didn't actually turn up.