British No1 Anne Keothavong lost to Elena Vesina in the ASB Classic in Auckland

Gareth Southgate has risked further straining Middlesbrough's relations with Tottenham Hotspur by criticising Spurs for "unsettling" Stewart Downing and adding that when the winger eventually leaves it should be for a bigger stage than White Hart Lane.

Boro have rejected at least three bids from Spurs for the England international and, on Monday, turned down Downing's transfer request, and Southgate believes his star player should be aiming higher.

Although relations between Boro and Spurs are on shaky ground, Tottenham received a fillip last night when they finally agreed terms with Portsmouth over the transfer of the striker Jermain Defoe. Southgate's assessment of Tottenham's standing comes amid already tense relations between the clubs. But Boro's manager, like his chairman, Steve Gibson, is furious with the London club for turning Downing's head and believes the 24-year-old is good enough to play for a top-four club.

"I don't think it [a move to White Hart Lane] is in the interests of our club or in the interests of Stewart," said Southgate. "There's a certain level that, if Stewart's going to leave this club, he should be going to. I'm not knocking Tottenham but I've had plenty of conversations with Stewart about his future, the majority of which I'd prefer to keep private. He totally understands I want the best for him."

Southgate is adamant that the winger will not be going anywhere this month – even for the £14.5m Spurs are prepared to pay, although he indicated that he might be willing to let Downing leave next summer. "Obviously another football club has unsettled Stewart," said the former England defender, who is hoping to swap Mido for Newcastle's Alan Smith while also recruiting Ben Watson from Crystal Palace. "But this a cut-throat industry and everyone outside your club will try and destabilise it."

He hinted that Gibson's stance might have been a little less rigid had Boro not been heading for a potential relegation scrap. "If we'd had seven more points now it could quite possibly have been a different situation," said Southgate, who has rejected a £4.5m bid from Portsmouth to re-sign Gary O'Neil.

"I've had several talks with Stewart this week and he knows I can't put him first at the moment. Timing is the key issue. Stewart is such a talent, such an important player to us that, at this time of year, there's no way of replacing him. We'll be a lot more sympathetic to players at the end of the season when we have time to adjust plans but it's very difficult to bring replacements in during January."

And especially when you are trying to attract them to a club as unglamorous as Boro. "There's no way I could replace Stewart now," stressed Southgate. "It's difficult to get players to come to a club such as ours and particularly when we're in our current league position. There was a time when we paid the sort of wages very few other clubs were paying but that's not the case anymore."

Spurs will welcome Defoe into their side for Sunday's match against Wigan after Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman, reached an agreement with his Portsmouth counterpart Peter Storrie. Portsmouth had been angered by Spurs' decision to parade Defoe at White Hart Lane before Tuesday's Carling Cup semi-final with Burnley while negotiations over the striker's £15m transfer were ongoing.

Levy is understood to have written off the money Portsmouth owed Spurs for the signings of Pedro Mendes and Younes Kaboul to appease the Fratton Park club. The Premier League will finalise Defoe's registration with Spurs today.

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If Kevin Pietersen had underestimated the furore he had caused in English cricket, the headlines as he flew into Heathrow yesterday left him in no doubt. He must have wondered how he could enter an England dressing room again.

According to The Sun, he had become "cricket's most hated man". The Mirror told him that he had been "stabbed in the back" by his England team-mates. And the Mail even named a culprit. "Andrew Flintoff leads a mutiny," it said, arguing that Flintoff's refusal to support Pietersen's assault on the England coach, Peter Moores, had made his resignation as captain inevitable.

To be rushed out of a side exit at Heathrow under police protection only added to the malaise.

By mid-afternoon, Andrew Strauss, his replacement as England captain, had made an unflappable attempt to restore sanity. The maverick captaincy of Pietersen, which self-destructed within five months, had been replaced by the smooth diplomacy of Strauss. Never has it been more needed.

The French president, Charles de Gaulle, once observed that "diplomats are useful only in fair weather". But that was not true of Strauss, whose emollience will need to be hard-edged in a dressing room which, if not exactly riven by conflict, will be awash with mistrust and resentment.

"I totally believe that KP did everything with the best intentions for the England cricket team,'' Strauss said. "I do have some sympathy for him because he was doing what he felt was right. That is KP as a person. I don't think he should be vilified for that. KP is a very strong-willed person. That was one of his great strengths as an England captain. He had an idea of where England cricket needed to go and he wasn't afraid of upsetting people along the way. In a way that was one of his finest traits but it also caused some confrontations.

"You need these sort of people in your team, people who aren't going to take a backward step. He showed that with his batting and that is how he tried to run his captaincy." The willingness of Flintoff, a cornerstone of the dressing room, to accommodate him is crucial. They have never been natural allies. Flintoff, too, was never likely to support Pietersen's attack on Moores, with whom he had a much more comfortable relationship than that with his predecessor as England coach, Duncan Fletcher.

But Flintoff and Pietersen rubbed along on the field in India, respecting each other's talents and professionalism even as the relationship between captain and coach was becoming irreconcilable. Pietersen is capricious and theatrical; Flintoff prefers earthier company. But Flintoff does not believe that he has led a mutiny, as much as refuse to support one.

Strauss had also been ambivalent when contacted by the England team manager, Hugh Morris. "In that sort of situation people get pushed into a corner," Strauss said. "The key thing is that the captain and the coach get on and I don't think from a player's point of view that we gained much by getting involved too heavily. But my experience of England dressing rooms has been that we have got on well. I don't think anything has happened to change that.

"I don't believe the rift is as bad as people make out. My job is to manage the dressing room and make sure we are all going in the right direction. That is going to take some effort on the players' behalf. You are not going to walk in and everything is going to be hunky dory. But this England team has a duty to perform well."

Andy Afford, a former Nottinghamshire spinner and now editor of All Out cricket magazine, studied Pietersen's fallout at Trent Bridge at close hand. He thinks he can survive the most troubled period of his career.

"He is the sort of personality where it will be as if it had never happened,'' Afford said. "He has always been very sure of his opinions and to some degree a law unto himself with regard to dressing-room etiquette. He just says what he thinks.

"He can be quite gushing and emotional but he is incredibly resilient. He misjudged the situation and it horribly backfired – he never planned on losing the England captaincy – but he can brazen it out. He will take his place in the changing room and get on with the job. He is a gregarious bloke. It all just ran away with him.''

Geoff Cook, coach to the county champions, Durham, also judged Pietersen's reintroduction as "not impossible by a long stretch". He said: "The guys in the dressing room know what KP was like before he was captain. I don't think anything he has done will have surprised anybody. If there are factions it can become uncontrollable. People find themselves sliding into attitudes that they don't want to adopt. But Strauss is in a pretty good situation to address it."

Monty Panesar, meanwhile, refuted the idea that divisions had built up in the England dressing room. The spinner said: "I've heard people saying there are cliques in this England squad but that isn't true. Of course there are various groups but it would be wrong to call them cliques. There is a real mixture of people in the England team which is totally normal. You get some guys who are really loud and others who are more quiet and reserved. But opposites attract. It's not a problem having a lot of different characters."

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Shane Warne has played down reports that Kevin Pietersen sounded him out about taking over from Peter Moores as a joke between mates

Roger Federer paid Andy Murray a considerable compliment ahead of their semi-final in the Qatar Open. "It's not a final, so that's my problem," he said. "I have never beaten him when it's not a final."

It was partly a joke but for the holder of 13 grand slam titles to have said these things about the young Scot who was not in the same league a short time ago was indicative of just what an enormous distance Murray has come.

This was indicated by the course of the British No1's 6–4, 6–2 win over Sergiy Stakhovsky, the Ukrainian whom he beat in the final of the US junior open in 2004 and against whom he took 21 points out of 23 in a boiling hot streak from 3–4 down.

This spell of brilliance, in which Murray won rallies in almost every conceivable variety of ways, was triggered so he claimed, by getting a warning from the umpire for alleged unlawful coaching from Miles Maclagan.

"It's the first time I've ever had a warning in a match for coaching," complained Murray. "Miles said 'keep pushing. Keep pushing.' I asked the umpire if he heard what Miles said, and he said he saw Miles' mouth was moving for four or five seconds, so it wasn't just encouragement. I said you can't give a warning if you can't hear it. It was a little bit strange and it got me a little bit fired up."

Prior to that Murray had been covering acres of ground in containment against the Ukrainian's forthright hitting and frequent net approaches. When the adrenalin spurred him to take the match by the scruff of the neck, he was a quite different player.

"He's a good player and really improved," said the world No2 about Murray. "He's more confident, more solid and more strong. It's what I would have expected from him but six months to a year earlier. It will be exciting."

Federer burned hot too, though for a shorter time. He was three set points down at 3–6 in the tie-break against Philipp Kohlschreiber, an improving top 30 German, before unleashing five perfect points, finishing with a triumphant ace. Federer looks good and he made it clear that winning the title was an important part of pre-Australian match practice.

Rafael Nadal did not feel the same. He had five matches and would go to Australia without any bad feelings, he reckoned after a 6–4, 6–4 defeat to Gael Monfils, who in patches looked good enough to challenge the top four himself.

But Nadal, having replaced his pirate pants with shorts which revealed clearly the tapes round his troublesome knees, and minus some of his usual buccaneering swagger as well, admitted that his preparation for the 2009 season has been adversely affected.

The world number one finished 2008 unable to play the final two events of 2008, and the rest which he needed ate significantly into his practice time as well.

"I didn't play many matches in the last few months so I didn't have time for rhythm and playing well every day. But I have had five matches here and in Abu Dhabi, and I hope that is enough. I have one and a half weeks to prepare for the Australian Open."

Asked if there was damage to his confidence, Nadal denied it: "I knew before the game here that the beginning of the season was not going to be easy because, although I have had more rest than other players, I have also had more time outside of competition. So it is a bit more difficult to come back to my rhythm."

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If many punters have been exasperated by the frosty chaos in the National Hunt programme on turf, yesterday's Flat card on Polytrack at misty Great Leighs also produced weather-related frustration for armchair bettors after a commentator called the wrong horse in front in the closing stages of a fogbound sprint handicap.

No more than the last half-furlong was visible in most of the races at the Essex course, making conditions close to impossible both for backers and for Ian Bartlett, calling it for the At The Races channel.

As the leaders emerged from the gloom at the end of the first race, Bartlett briefly named Steel City Boy, rather than Godfrey Street, who carried similar red colours, as the likely winner of the race. He corrected himself two seconds later, but with the line in sight, it was enough to prompt some punters to go in hard on Betfair's in-running markets.

Steel City Boy was backed at 1.01, the basement price on the exchange, in both the win and place markets, despite apparently not being in the first three at any stage of the race. Nearly £1,500 was staked at 1.01 to win (equivalent to 1-100) with another £1,000 staked at 1.02 (or 1-50). The race was a poor one for punters all round, as Godfrey Street's major victim was Silvanus, the best-backed horse of the day, who was sent off at 10-11.

At least it warmed the heart of Tony Newcombe, the trainer of Godfrey Street, who said: "That's my first winner here and it's nice to get it. This horse won the Flying Childers a few years ago so has got plenty of speed, and he is a good horse when it all goes right."

Ron Cox's tip of the day

Mitchel Henry 3.10 Kelso

This successful point-to-pointer is finding his feet over regulation fences and looks handicapped to win a race of this sort, especially with the promising Rhys Flint claiming a valuable 7lb. Racing from nearly a stone above his correct mark, Mitchel Henry kept on well to finish third to Sammy Spiderman at Ayr. He stays well and can reverse those placings over this extra half-mile.

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England may face a fresh crisis if they appoint Andy Flower as interim coach on their imminent tour of the West Indies. It emerged yesterday that Flower, who is tipped to be the temporary replacement for the sacked Peter Moores, was one of the backroom staff that Kevin Pietersen wanted England to get rid of.

A senior official on the England and Wales Cricket Board said yesterday: "Pietersen wanted half of them out and certainly Andy Flower. I don't know what he was hoping to achieve but I've never encountered an ego quite like it in cricket. He wanted to run the show." Another management board member said: "I did hear that Kevin wanted Andy out."

Flower did not expect to be named as interim coach under Pietersen for the Caribbean trip. But all he would say last night was: "I had heard something about this but not enough to make a comment. I have always had a good relationship with KP but we have not spoken in the past few days." A spokesman for Pietersen refused to deny the story last night. "Pass," he said.

The revelation confounds the notion that Pietersen only respects coaches with international standing. While Moores was a moderate county cricketer who was never close to international recognition, Flower was one of the finest players of his time.

The former Zimbabwe captain and wicketkeeper-batsman scored 4,794 runs in 63 Tests at 51.54, with a dozen centuries. He was a particularly fine player of spin bowling and is believed to have helped a number of England players with their batting in India recently, particularly new captain Andrew Strauss, who scored a century in each innings in Chennai.One of Moores' closest allies, he played for Essex between 2002-6 and became England's assistant coach in May 2007. It was the first big decision Moores made as coach. Hugh Morris, the managing director of England Cricket, worked desperately hard to keep both Pietersen and Moores together.

Now he faces an equally difficult task in re-integrating Pietersen back into the dressing room with the messy fall-out of the whole affair still dominating everyone's attention and with the Caribbean tour, which starts on January 21, less than two weeks away.

A number of senior players said they preferred Moores to Pietersen when they were consulted by Morris in the past week, even though the coach had yet to make a real impact by taking the side forward.

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Though Liverpool have begun the year at the top of the table, for the layers the contest for the Premier League is a head-to-head between Manchester United and Chelsea. Since the start of the season neither the champions nor the team they pipped to last year's title have gone odds-on to win the league this time around but that could all change after the final whistle of their game at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Victory for Sir Alex Ferguson's side would see their current 6-4 (Hills) cut to shorter than evens, with one odds compiler revealing United could be trading as low as 8-11 on Monday even if Liverpool win at Stoke on Saturday.

Chelsea, four points in front of United having played two games more, have slipped from the head of the market after three draws in their last four games, a run that has persuaded the layers to push them out to a season-biggest 9–4 (Sky Bet and Hills) to win the title. Liverpool are the third best at 11–4 (Betfred).

For Sunday's game United are 13-10 (Blue Square and Sky Bet) to win. Extrabet have already seen a £5,000 bet at 6-5 on the champions. Chelsea are best at 11-4 (Coral) with the draw 11-5 (generally).

On form United's price looks about right but those backing them recently have earned bigger dividends by looking beyond the match odds to the correct score market. United's last four league wins have been via a 1-0 scoreline and a repeat of that victory is priced up at 17-2 by Betfred and Sky Bet.

Both teams have struggled to score recently with nine of United's last 13 matches producing only one goal or less, while eight of Chelsea's last 13 fixtures have witnessed fewer than three. Both statistics suggest the 4-6 on offer with Victor Chandler that the game will produce less than 2.5 goals is a fair bet. Indeed, only one of the last eight meetings between these two sides has seen more than two goals. That fact has not been lost on IG Sport clients who have forced the Blackfriars Road spread betting firm to alter their total goals quote from 2.4-2.6 to 2.3-2.5 on the back of several £1,000 to £5,000 sellers.

After the mix-and-match starting XIs Ferguson put out against both Southampton and Derby, United will be back to something like full strength on Sunday with Rio Ferdinand the home team's only doubt. With Darren Fletcher and Park Ji- Sung Park conspicuous by their absence in either cup fixture, we can conclude they will play at the weekend. Both represent interesting 'first player to score' options at 22-1 (general) and 16-1 (Ladbrokes) respectively.

Of the two the preference is for Park. The Korean is an irregular scorer for United – averaging just over a goal every 10 league games (Fletcher's mean is slightly under one in every 10) – but he netted the opener in the 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge in September and, featuring on the left wing, could take advantage of José Bosingwa's tendency to play more like a right-sided midfielder than a full-back. Back Park each-way with Ladbrokes, whose place terms are a third the odds the first five places (goals). Alternatively Paddy Power offer 6-1 that the former PSV Eindhoven midfielder scores at any time.

The total corners market is worth investigation. Spread bettors will have noticed that over the last season and a half not one league fixture – out of 18 – between the big-four clubs has produced more than 11 corners. So despite both United and Chelsea featuring towards the top of the 'corners won' table, the head-to-head statistics tell us there will be a smaller than average number of flag kicks in this Sunday's game. It also suggests those selling Sporting Index's 11-11.5 total corners quote are unlikely to lose. A handful of fixed odds firms offer total corners betting on televised fixtures. The best on offer yesterday was Extrabet's 11-10 that there will be fewer than 11 corners in the game.

Selections

Less than 2.5 goals in the game at 4-6 (Victor Chandler) *****

Sell total corners at 11 (Sporting Index) ***

Park Ji-sung, each-way, first goalscorer market at 16-1 (Ladbrokes) *

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Life as a top fly-half has rarely been tougher. As Danny Cipriani, Charlie Hodgson, Ryan Lamb, Shane Geraghty and Toby Flood will all testify, the pressure on a whole generation of English players to follow in Jonny Wilkinson's stud-marks is the least of their worries. Never has there been more punting from hand – the dreaded "kick tennis" – or more emphasis on defensive solidity in the No10 channel. Thanks to endless video analysis, opponents can pinpoint a playmaker's weak spot within seconds. As Cipriani is discovering, it is not the easiest time to be a gifted, creative attacking pivot.

Which is why, if the game gets the go-ahead – there will be a pitch inspection tomorrow – the top-quality Premiership duel between Sale Sharks and London Irish has a significance stretching beyond Stockport. Hodgson and Geraghty are increasingly rare creatures: visionaries in a sport of suffocatingly small margins. As England weigh up their Six Nations options, Edgeley Park will be graced by the two home-qualified 10s bucking recent trends better than anyone. If anyone can relate to Cipriani's chargedown crisis (copyright all newspapers), it is two rivals who have endured serious injury setbacks and microscopic scrutiny themselves.

If the Wasps fly-half thinks he is labouring down a hard road, Hodgson could quietly put him right. Two knee reconstructions and a Test career pitted with mental torment, not least in New Zealand last summer, could easily have sent him over the edge.

Instead the 28-year-old Yorkshireman has emerged defiant, albeit after a period of introspection following the All Black tour, when he was summarily axed for missing a crucial tackle on Ma'a Nonu in the first Test. Sale even chose briefly to leave their kingpin on the bench for two key Heineken ties.

"I was obviously disappointed with what happened in New Zealand and it took me quite a few games to get my head around the fact I wasn't playing well. I had a bit of a kick up the arse from the coaches at Sale but since then I've been pleased with my form. It's taken a while but thankfully I'm over it."

After 30 caps, though, Hodgson still wonders if people expect too much of their No10s and suspects the spotlight has never been so intense. "I think there probably is more pressure but I find it strange. I might be slightly biased as a 10 but it's a team sport and it's not down to one person to make or break a game. There are going to be times when the likes of Cipriani will do something special and win a match but for people in that position to shoulder all the blame is quite harsh."

As Hodgson is fully aware, diffident players do not prosper at the highest level. Next week, for example, Sale face Munster at Thomond Park, the ultimate abattoir for the weak-minded. "Don't get me wrong. If you play at 10 you know you'll be criticised if things go badly and highlighted if you play well. You have to accept the good and the bad."

It is a truth echoed by Gloucester's Lamb, another young player attempting to revive an abruptly stalled career. "If you don't like the pressure there's no point playing 10. It comes with the territory. If you speak to Cips and Charlie they'll all say they like being in the spotlight. It's nice getting the plaudits but you've got to take the rough with the smooth."

Geraghty is emerging from his latest frustrating injury hiatus. As recently as last month he needed an injection to ease a freak ankle ligament injury but is starting to re-emerge as an assured contributor for a London Irish side keen to reinforce their table-topping position. One more good display tomorrow night might also catapult the 22-year-old into real contention for a starting role against Italy next month.

The England attack coach, Brian Smith, remains a big fan while at Irish, Mike Catt and Toby Booth have been fine-tuning Geraghty's game, asking him to run more laterally to invite others to carve midfield holes rather than continually taking on the defensive line himself.

Hodgson, though, remains a similarly skilled lock-picker and has not given up hope of wearing an England or Lions jersey again. "I'd love to be involved again with the Lions but, first and foremost, you have to be in the England squad, playing for a successful England team and playing well. I've had some good times and some unhappy times at Test level so it would be nice to have more success over a prolonged period.

"But it's kind of out of my control. My main aim at the moment is for Sale to be successful and for us to win some silverware. We know the next few games will make or break our season. There are guys here who are moving on to pastures new and we want to send them off with something special."

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The chance that racing will lose top-class jumps action to the cold weather for the second Saturday running depends on an inspection at Warwick this morning, after racecourse officials decided yesterday to wait a little longer for the promised thaw before abandoning the biggest day of the year at the small Midlands track.

If the current forecast is correct, Warwick may well be raceable on Sunday but that will be no consolation to the track's executives, who may have no option but to abandon a card that includes two Graded events and a Listed bumper.

"The track is still unraceable," Andrew Morris, Warwick's clerk of the course, said yesterday, "but it's our biggest day, there's a fantastic card in the offing and I want to give it every chance without causing too much inconvenience to people.

"We'll take another look in the morning, though we have been promised a frost this evening, and if that were to materialise we would have no chance."

The possibility that the thaw may well arrive 24 hours too late for Warwick prompted Morris to wonder about the practicality of running the meeting on Sunday instead, which would not be permitted under the current BHA rules.

"For a smaller racecourse like Warwick, losing this meeting would be similar to losing the Peterborough Chase at Huntingdon [where Morris is also the clerk of the course]," he said. "We budget for a crowd of around 2,500, which is very good for Warwick, and it's fantastic to have our day in the sun. It's great for the town of Warwick and great for the racecourse."

"[Postponing a meeting] is something that happens in Ireland, but it's not ever been something that's done in this country, and there are all sorts of practicalities that need to be considered. It's something that would have to come from the BHA downwards, but it needs to be investigated, though it would require contact and discussion with a huge range of people before you can even reach the stage of considering whether it's feasible."

A similar idea was floated by Edward Gillespie, the managing director of Cheltenham racecourse, after the track's valuable Boylesports International card was lost in early December.

However, the BHA suggested yesterday that, while attractive at first sight, postponing entire cards to another day is an option that could prove very difficult to implement. "Simply moving entire meetings to a different day is far more complex than people imagine," Paul Struthers, the BHA's media relations manager, said.

"When you lose a big, televised meeting, the prize money for quality races is funded not just by the Levy Board but by significant racecourse and sponsors contributions. If the original fixture is lost the sponsor loses much of the benefit, such as terrestrial coverage or hospitality, so will they be willing to support the race without terrestrial coverage? Is it financially viable for the racecourse?"

Aside from commercial considerations, staffing would also be a problem if a major meeting moves its location, even by 24 hours. "Racecourses will face logistical ­difficulties such as staffing and policing," Struthers said. "For bigger Festival meetings, such as York [which was forced to abandon its Ebor meeting due to a waterlogged course last season], the impact on the city of simply moving it back a week would be huge, as there is so much planning that's focused on that week.

"People often point to how it works in Ireland but it's not comparing like with like. Horseracing Ireland directly control the funding, have more direct control over fixtures and indeed are involved in the running of four racecourses.

"Add to that less reliance on terrestrial television coverage and generally three or four days with no programmed racing a week, which in turn means fewer opportunities to run, and you can see why it can happen over there and not here."

At least Ayr's gamble of scheduling an extra jumps meeting tomorrow looks like paying off as the course was declared raceable yesterday. And while Leopards­town reported that parts of the course remained frozen, no problems are expected ahead of Sunday's big Pierse Hurdle meeting.

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Chelsea and Manchester United rarely give bookmakers any reasons to be cheerful but such occasions have occurred in the past week. The Blues' home FA Cup draw with Southend delighted Ladbrokes and Paddy Power estimated that the result saved them £500,000. United's 1-0 defeat by Derby County in the first leg of their Carling Cup semi-final heaped further misery on punters, with Sky Bet celebrating six-figure profits as the money poured in for the champions.

Ladbrokes and Victor Chandler took bets of £18,000 at 4–9 on United while Paddy Power stood one of £9,000. However, a shrewd IG Sport customer did make £9,600 after selling "total goals" at 2.6 for £6,000 per goal.

A Sky Bet client cashed in on the FA Cup shocks after predicting a win for Nottingham Forest, a draw at Stamford Bridge and Barrow to defeat Middlesbrough with a two-goal start – a treble that netted £2,376 from just a £12 stake. There was also joy for an Extrabet punter who gambled £1,000 at 7–1 that Forest would win at Eastlands.

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The number of cards issued in Premier League games varies according to the ­difference in ability between the teams. Our expectations when betting should, therefore, alter depending on who is playing whom in individual matches.

In most bookings markets, 10 points are awarded for each yellow card and 25 for each red. The average make-up for all Premier League games played during the past 10 seasons was 36. However, if you plotted a graph showing how bookings make-ups varied with the difference in league positions between teams, it would trace an arc, highest in the middle where the difference in league position is minimal, and its lowest points at the ends where the difference in league position was greatest.

In games between teams separated by no more than two places in the final table, the average bookings make-up was 41. However, in games featuring a home team that finished more than 15 places below the away team the average bookings make-up was just 33. And in games featuring a home team that finished more than 15 places above the away team it was no bigger than 30.

The number of cards a team receive during a game is related primarily to how much defending they have to do. It follows that in evenly balanced contests, both teams are likely to receive the same number of cards.

As games become progressively more lopsided, the best team are likely to receive fewer cards and the worst team more. In our arc, the number of cards received by the best team goes down faster than the number of cards received by the worst team goes up. Hence the total number of cards in a game decreases as the difference in ability between the two teams increases.

On Sunday, Manchester United play Chelsea. Ultra-competitive fixtures are likely to produce a comparatively high number of cards. In fact, there is usually an even greater intensity about Manchester United v Chelsea because of the rivalry between the clubs. But bettors should be looking for games when the opposite applies. Over the next fortnight, Chelsea and Liverpool will both play Stoke while Manchester United and Arsenal will both play Bolton. In less keenly contested fixtures, there are likely to be comparatively few cards.

• Kevin Pullein is football tipster for the Racing Post

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Afew years ago a friend of mine coined the word auct-ennui to describe the frisson of regret that overcomes us when we see something on eBay we owned as a child. Auct-ennui is at once plaintively nostalgic and red-bloodedly fiscal.

The classic symptom of auct-ennui is the slapping of the forehead and the mumbling of the words, "Striker by Parker! We used to play that on the carpet in the front room … Blimey, if only my mum hadn't given my set to the scouts' jumble sale – I'd refrained from drawing on the box in felt tip in a doomed attempt to make it appear that the photo illustration featured my team – and half the players' push-down heads hadn't got wedged between their shoulders so that they looked like entrants for a Gladstone Small look-alike contest, then it would now be worth … £28.75! I wonder what the Action Man England footballer kit goes for?"

Strangely the very thing that causes auct-ennui also provides its cure and its antidote. These days the search for times that were lost can be ended at the click of the Bid Now! button. Which is why I am writing this under the watchful gaze of Joe Mercer's Great Britain Soccer Squad – a set of white plastic busts of British footballers that were given away by Cleveland Petrol (Middlesbrough's very own oil company!) in 1971.

The first time I owned this, frankly, rather unsightly collection I was 10 years old. The complete set, slotted into its black plastic display stand – fashioned like an amphitheatre – stood proudly on the kitchen windowsill alongside a jam jar that held my "swaps" (Three Tommy Gemmells, if memory serves). Then one day, when I came back from school, it had disappeared. My mother had handed it to the binmen.

She claimed she had got sick of the feeling that the Welsh centre-back Mike England's eyes were following her round the room when she was getting the tea. And besides which, she said, the plastic heads were a health hazard, my grandfather having severely damaged his dentures when he came round without his glasses on one dinnertime and thought my swaps jar held pickled onions. My grandfather was neither the first nor the last person to damage his teeth in a clash with Tommy Gemmell but he was surely the only one ever to do it while trying to eat him with a slice of Cracker Barrel Canadian cheddar as part of a ploughman's lunch.

My original Texaco collection cost me nothing, my mother gave it away for nothing and 36 years later I bought it back for £9.56 plus postage and packaging. In financial terms this makes very little sense, unless perhaps you are Daniel Levy. The Spurs chairman seems afflicted by a virulent football strain of auct-ennui. No sooner has a player left White Hart Lane, than Levy starts wistfully pining for his return.

If I didn't know any better, I'd suspect it was actually Daniel Levy's mum who controlled all outward movement of footballers from Tottenham, with Daniel returning to the stadium on the four o'clock bus, rushing up to his room, ransacking his cupboard and then stomping down again furiously demanding: "Where's Jermain Defoe gone, mother?" And his Mum replying: "Well, now, Danny you didn't seem to play with him any more, so …"

Luckily Levy now has an ally in Harry Redknapp, a man who likes to keep a collection of familiar old objects around him at all times (Kevin Bond being his answer to an Evel Knievel action figure with friction-drive stunt bike). This means that, unlike the rest of us, Levy does not have to wait three decades to reacquaint himself with his former favourites.

The prevailing opinion is that Redknapp is an exceptionally shrewd businessman. On Tuesday the Spurs gaffer paid £15m to bring Defoe back to Tottenham from Portsmouth. Twelve months ago Redknapp bought Defoe for Pompey from Spurs for £9m. Thus did the great wheeler-dealer make a £6m profit for his previous employer at the expense of his current one. I do not know much about high finance but I will venture that, if this is what passes for shrewdness in British business, then frankly there is little wonder we are in such a big economic mess.

Not content with Defoe, Spurs are now being linked with a move to bring Pascal Chimbonda back. Clearly there are limits but, if Levy and Redknapp carry on like this can we rule out a surprise swoop for Steffen Iversen, Peter Crouch or Nico Claesen?

This urge to re-sign players is not confined to Spurs, obviously. Juninho returned to Middlesbrough so often it appeared that Steve Gibson had attached the titchy Brazilian to the Riverside Stadium with a length of elastic. In the 1970s Hughie McIlmoyle went back to Carlisle like a homing pigeon, big Ernie Moss played for Chesterfield in three spells spread over three decades, while the splendid Abe Rosenthal moved between Bradford and Tranmere five times between 1938 and 1955. Now, I don't like to be presumptuous but, if there's a more obscure fact than that last one on these pages in the next 12 months, I'll eat Tommy Gemmell's head. And Ron Davies' too for good measure.

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Kevin Pietersen held talks with a ­representative of the Bangalore Royal Challengers when England played their one-day match in the Indian city last November but at least two other Indian Premier League franchises are interested in signing the former England captain. Indeed, if Pietersen were to decide to skip England's two home Tests against West Indies and play the full six weeks rather than a fortnight in the IPL, he could spark a bidding war that would see teams tempted to blow their $2m budget on securing his signature.

Pietersen met a representative of the Royal Challengers at the Grand Ashok where the team stayed in the city last year. It was more than a cursory chat and in the light of the tumultuous events of the past 48 hours, that fleeting tête-à-tête is bound to come under close scrutiny.

This evening the Royal Challengers did not deny that contact had been made with Pietersen. "Obviously, we're interested in signing him," said a team official. "But it all depends on the auction." But did they, to use football parlance, tap him up? "It doesn't really matter if we talked or didn't talk," was the reply. "There would be several franchises keen to sign him, and we'll know when the auction comes around."

The IPL auction for the 2009 season takes place on 6 February when the Royal Challengers would face stiff competition to sign Pietersen, an enormously popular figure in India after England's decision to return to the country after the Mumbai terror attacks. The Bangalore-based franchise had been bought at a cost of $111.6m (£73.4m) by Vijay Mallya, the industrialist who owns United Breweries, Kingfisher Airlines and the struggling Force India formula one team. Despite all the pre–IPL hype and hoopla, the Royal Challengers had a disastrous first season, winning just four of 14 games. Mallya sacked the CEO and ranted about his team mid-season, and with the transfer window open until 22 January, there's little doubt that he and his officials will do their best to move on some of the duds from last season.

Jacques Kallis, who cost $900,000 (£592,000), and Cameron White, signed at a cost of $500,000 (£329,000), are both on thin ice after underwhelming displays, and Pietersen would be the perfect fit for a team desperately short of batting oomph.

There will be competition, though. The Mumbai Indians are owned by Reliance, one of India's leading business houses, and captained by Sachin Tendulkar.Sanath Jayasuriya, who they bought for $975,000 (£642,000) last year, turns 40 in June and Pietersen would be an ideal big-hitting acquisition as they build for the future. Like Bangalore, they too missed out on the semi-finals last season.

The Chennai Super Kings, who splurged $1.5m on Mahendra Singh Dhoni, are also thought to be interested, but the real wild cards could be the Rajasthan Royals, the defending champions. Captained by Shane Warne, old sparring partner and friend, and with Jeremy Snape also part of the backroom staff, the Royals ran a tight ship last season. The only stumbling block on Pietersen's route to Jaipur comes in the shape of the four-foreign-player rule. The playing XI must have seven Indian players, and with Warne, Graeme Smith, Shane Watson and Pakistan's Sohail Tanveer having played such pivotal roles in the team's success, the management would probably be loathe to change tactics, even to accommodate someone of Pietersen's undoubted ability.

The eight franchises have $2m to spend on players this season, and it's not inconceivable that a team could sink the whole lot on Pietersen. After leading the England team back to India following the Mumbai terror attacks, he was an immensely popular figure and a rollicking century at Mohali then confirmed what most cricket-watchers already knew, that he's a once-in-a-generation batting talent. What the franchises want now is some clarity on the central-contract situation. As it stands, he would be available for only two weeks of the IPL season. If he decides to opt out of the two home Tests against West Indies in May in order to play the full season of IPL, it would spark a bidding war.

Last year, Andrew Symonds was the most expensive overseas player at $1,375,000. But, along with the rest of the Australian contingent, he was available for just four games. Teams singed by that experience will be wary of investing too much in a player if he cannot be there for the long haul.

There is also the question of ECB approval. No player can take part in the IPL without a no-objection certificate from his home board, and that will ensure that Pietersen will not burn his bridges with Lord's. The central contract could be a thorny issue. With an Ashes series looming, can English cricket allow its biggest asset to pick and choose his games? The red carpet has already been rolled out at the eight IPL venues, and it only remains to be seen which one Pietersen chooses to walk down. Bangalore are the front-runners, but if Tendulkar puts in a word, it could be Mumbai and the bright lights of Bollywood that become home away from home.

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The Ospreys will find out whether their eight-month search for a head coach has ended when their preferred candidate, Scott Johnson, meets his employers at USA Rugby to see if they are prepared to share him with the Welsh region.

The Ospreys have offered the job to Johnson, the former Wales and Australia skills coach, and he is keen to take it, but only if he is able to remain in charge of the United States. The Ospreys have been linked with a number of coaches since sacking Lyn Jones at the end of last season, including Eddie O'Sullivan, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith, but have so far drawn a blank.

The region's director of rugby, Andrew Hore, was a colleague of the Australian on the Wales management team earlier this decade. Johnson is today meeting Nigel Melville, the chief executive of USA Rugby. The Eagles have two World Cup qualifiers against Canada in July and any deal would hinge on whether the Ospreys, who have refused to comment on Johnson other than that their search for a head coach was continuing, would also be prepared to share the coach.

"If we cannot get Scott's full release for our international commitments, there can be no deal," said Melville. "He is the Eagles coach and that's something we cannot compromise on. If that can be agreed, maybe it will be good for our coach to be involved at the highest club level in the UK and working with that quality of player."

The Ospreys entertain Munster at the Liberty Stadium tonight in a top-of-the-table Magners League encounter. The Wales wing, Shane Williams, returns after a month out with a shoulder injury while James Hook reclaims the fly-half jersey after being dropped for the derby against Cardiff Blues last week.

"It was disappointing to be left out of a big game, but I was pleased with my performance when I came on as a replacement," said Hook. "The coaches have said I need to improve my game management. When you are on outside-half, it is difficult to control a whole game but on Friday I will be up against the form fly-half in Europe, Ronan O'Gara. He is a complete player and as a player you want to test yourself against the best."

Lyn Jones has been working as Newport Gwent Dragons' backs coach on a temporary basis since last November while coaching Ebbw Vale. The Dragons want to make the move permanent.

Tom Palmer yesterday became the second Wasps' forward this week after Tom Rees, to be ruled out of England's Six Nations campaign. The 31-year old second row, who started in two of the November internationals, has had shoulder surgery and will be out of action until the middle of April.

The Scotland flanker Jason White will leave Sale at the end of the season after signing a two-year contract with Clermont Auvergne. He will follow the France forward Sebastien Chabal and the director of rugby Philippe Saint-André out of Edgeley Park.

Newcastle are laying on free coach travel and sandwiches for supporters who want to travel to Bristol next month for a Premiership match that will have a significant bearing on who goes down.

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