tesco eats manchester united

I have just read Why England Lose: and Other Curious Phenomena Explained.

I loved it. My favourite sections were on incompetent management - how hopelessly managers are chosen, transfers are conducted and incredibly valuable players are relocated, for instance. But a particularly revealing page discusses the canard that football is 'big business.'

By 2008, the average club in the Premier League turned over £75m. The average Tesco supermarket turned over £50m. And Tesco has 600 supermarkets, so the big ones will average a lot more. And Tesco is benefiting from economies of scale rather than fighting with itself. And so on.

The story is obviously more complicated than this, but if you're interested, read the book. Read mine first, though. I'm reading from it at West End Lane Books tonight. It's a really great book shop (they were lovely at my launch, and they have filled their window with TKSC, so I am pretty biased).