We get paid millions to play a game, but we are just pawns who sell ourselves to keep this system going I am not just Almeyda the footballer. Last year, while playing for Inter, he reflected philosophically on the footballer’s lot “Football at this level is fake, it’s all a pretend world. The player also attracted interest from Crystal Palace, Everton, Espanyol and Bologna after falling out with Brescia’s management and supporters. Provided he has maintained his fitness, his debut is likely to come at Bolton Wanderers on New Year’s Day.Almeyda should bring much-needed colour to Albion’s monochrome season. His pedigree includes a Serie A championship with Lazio as well as spells at River Plate, Sevilla, Parma and Internazionale.Robson, who has seen Albion take one point from six games since he succeeded Gary Megson, fought off late competition from Livorno to make Almeyda his first signing. With one eye on the transfer window and the other on the relegation trapdoor, Bryan Robson made the first of several expected signings for West Bromwich Albion last night when Matias Almeyda, the Argentinian international midfielder, joined the Premiership’s bottom club.
Almeyda, 31, who arrived at The Hawthorns as a free agent, his contract with the Italian club Brescia having been cancelled by mutual consent earlier this season after only four months, is perhaps politely described as an enforcer. The midfielder had a major operation on his hip in September 2002 and was warned that he might have to have a hip replacement later in life if he prolonged his career.Keane said: “I could not be happier at the club and my biggest challenge is to keep going as long as I can.

I have another year and a half left at this club and I intend to see that out. If I am still able to play on after that then I hope that it will be at United.”The club haveyet to reach an agreement with their goalkeeper Roy Carroll, whose contract expires in the summer. United are not willing to move him up the pay scale but, if he signs, will consider raising his wages in a year’s time providing he is still the No 1 keeper. Carroll’s agent, Francis Martin, said yesterday that the two sides were close to a deal.. Arsenal continue to try to convince us that the best young players come from overseas. Our talent is clustered around a fairly equal, and deeply engrossing, battle between three teams But the sadness is that it is those three teams alone..

Roy Keane said for the first time last night that he might postpone his retirement and stay at Manchester United beyond the terms of his current contract, which expires in June 2006. Chelsea will, just as United did with the purchase of Rooney, hobble the chasing pack even further if, as seems likely, they take Gerrard from Liverpool this summer. From a variety of angles Mike Riley’s penalty for Wayne Rooney against Arsenal at Old Trafford looks good. But best of all was Steve Bennett waving Bolo Zenden onside for his goal against Liverpool. A roadside speed camera would have struggled with that decision but the referee called it just right.The shape of English football is still dictated by its dominant three teams.

We are all offended, all the time, by all sorts of actions, representations, behaviours and opinions. Henry’s quickly-taken free-kick against Chelsea is a reminder that Graham Poll gets it right more often than anyone else. In desperation, the club that tried to recruit the best young British talent of its generation is now trying to talk the star of the previous generation, Alan Shearer, out of retirement. Not so at Middlesbrough where the word on Steve McClaren is that he is a “club-builder”, in the same tradition as Ferguson, who has been laying the foundations for his side’s solid fifth place for a while.As for surprises, perhaps it is the officials who, after all, should be left in charge. Of the eight Premiership titles Ferguson has won, he has claimed five despite not being at the top of the table at the half-way point. In December 2002 he was four points short of Arsenal and he has been five points adrift three times before winning in 1993, 1997 and 1999. In December 1995 he was, of course, 10 points behind Newcastle.In the absence of Leeds, Newcastle have become our new template for excess and misjudgement on a grand scale.