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Just before Christmas there were genuine concerns starting to emerge that the Government wouldn't be able to deliver on its promise to stick within the London Olympics £9.325bn budget.

First we had the announcement that an extra £271m was required to boost security in and around the Olympic venues.

Then there was the decision to splash an additional £41m on the Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies, doubling the cost.

And finally there was the National Audit Office's unseasonally gloomy forecast that organisers would spend all but £36m of the remaining £500m contingency.

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Sunday's series of apologies from Liverpool following Luis Suarez's refusal to shake Patrice Evra's hand at the weekend suggest the club and their American owners have finally got the message.

But many would argue it has taken John Henry and Tom Werner way too long to realise the damage being done to the club. In fact, it says a lot about the global nature of the Premier League that it took a couple of critical pieces in US newspapers for Henry and Werner to demand a bit of contrition from Suarez and Kenny Dalglish.

It also makes you wonder why it required an intervention from these supposedly distant American owners to point out the need for Liverpool's star player and manager to come out and say sorry.

As a result of both the Suarez/Evra row and the John Terry affair, this season's racism back story has become so shameful that the Prime Minister feels the need to intervene and hold a summit with the game's authorities.

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Thursday lunchtime's news conference at Wembley told us little more than we already knew - that a disagreement between former Fabio Capello and Football Association chairman David Bernstein over the decision to strip John Terry of the England captaincy left the relationship beyond repair.

But we are still none the wiser about what really happened in Bernstein's meetings with former England coach Capello at Wembley on Wednesday.

About whether the Italian received any compensation to walk away four months before his £6m-a-year contract expires. Or who his choice would be to take over.

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Even before Harry Redknapp was cleared of all charges in his tax evasion trial today, the Redknapp for England bandwagon was up and running.

As the outstanding home grown manager in the Premier League and now with no legal or ethical obstacle to him taking the most high profile job in the English game, that campaign is certain to gather pace in the coming days and weeks.

Two former England managers - Sven Goran Eriksson and Graham Taylor - have already endorsed Redknapp's credentials to take over from Fabio Capello in the wake of the verdicts from Southwark Crown Court.

And in a delicious piece of timing that the Football Association is so adept at delivering, as Redknapp was giving his heartfelt reaction to being cleared, Capello was at Wembley discussing the fallout from the John Terry captaincy affair with his FA bosses.

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When the , they thought they were paying big money for a no-nonsense coach with top-class judgment.

But many will argue today that the Italian has called it wrong again by going public with his views on the FA board's decision to strip John Terry of the England captaincy.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of that decision - and many people applaud the FA for finally taking such a strong stance on this issue  - Capello is paid a lot of money as English football's main figurehead. How would Capello the disciplinarian feel if one of his players went public with his views on a decision he had taken?

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