There is, going the rounds on YouTube, a lengthy video that purports to unveil exactly what it is that makes Cristiano Ronaldo a great player. Or, as the video explains matters, "sports science experts are going to forensically analyze what makes him such an efficient machine."

This piece that I'm writing now ought to be one of sadness, but I think another quality is going to come through more strongly. I write of the death of Harry Keough. No, that's not it -- I write of Harry Keough. And the first thing to say, maybe the only thing that matters -- to me anyway -- is that Harry was quite simply the nicest person that I have known in soccer.

A couple of quotes to start things off. Shakespeare, of course, comes first -- from "King Lear":

Coming up shortly, the next meeting of the International Football Association Board, IFAB, the curiously composed little group that dictates what soccer's rules should be.

All the noise and the breathless hyped-up drama surrounding the closing of the transfer window seem to me to have raised an intriguing question: is the soccer world's superstar market drying up?