No one is saying that the Liverpool manager, Brendan Rodgers, had an easy job defending Luis Suarez this week but some of the positions he took were especially absurd.

Will the sheikh’s current incandescent anger provoke his own exit?

Forget the 'Inner Chimp' theory, Luis Suarez's behaviour is incorrigible

He is a wonder of competitive force and working intelligence

The force of any kind of working morality tends to have the luminous strength of that candle blowing in the wind

The force of any kind of working morality tends to have the luminous strength of that candle blowing in the wind

Mancini once again wore an expression in the dugout not so much agitated as bemused

There are only so many times you compromise with gutter behaviour

Had Brasher still been alive and in power the Farah half-marathon project would not have got past the departure lounge

Sport is supposed to be charmed, insulated from the worst of real life