OK. Here’s something for all you Fantasy Footballers out there.

Imagine that you are in charge of a Premier League football club and your owner says to you, “Here’s £1 Billion… go out and buy whoever you want, offer whatever wages are required, just make sure that you get them and make us the best in the world”.

After you have changed your pants, you get down to the nitty gritty of working out exactly who are the best players in the world and what it will take to get them to your club.

The first thing you might realise in this day when certain players might cost £100 Million is just how far £1 Billion DOESN’T go.

But anyway, go ahead and spend your £1 Billion.

Okay? Done that? Now, sell one of those attackers and spend it on some bloody defenders! Oh, and a goalkeeper might be a good idea too.

To have a full squad, you’re looking at thirty players, don’t forget. You need strength in depth. Not just a first eleven that relies on no one ever getting injured, suspended, tired or suffering a loss of form.

Ok. So now you have a full complement of players. You have had to let a few other players go because you found yourself top-heavy in the attacking department (this means that those top quality players are now playing for your rivals).

Your thirty man squad now consists of players who don’t see themselves as squad members. They expect to be in the first team, they won’t be happy at being on the bench for game after game.

No problem, you will drop the “Main Man” and bring on the second choice for a few games. The “Main Man” is now a bit unhappy. Are you trying to make him look bad? He starts to think he should have stayed where he was. Sure, he earned less money but £100k per week isn’t bad by anyone’s standards. He was never going to starve while he was there.

No problem. You bring him back for the next few games and now the second choice is thinking the same thing (make no mistake about it, very few footballers see themselves as the “second choice”).

Resentment towards you and fellow team-mates abounds. The whole thing is on the verge of becoming a mass-brawl. Team spirit is at an all time low. Places aren’t awarded on merit but on how much they were promised at the time of signing.

In the meantime, everyone else sees you as the main target. Everyone wants to raise their game against you. You’re the big scalp that everyone wants to take.

You look on in bemusement as teams who are languishing at the foot of the table suddenly become world-beaters when you’re in town. Defending as though their lives depend on it, shooting as though they know that every camera in the world will be focused upon them.

And all the while, the English media, who love nothing more than to build something up so that they can dismantle it brick by brick, will be on your case like the old Police song, “Every Breath You Take”.

The slightest perceived chink in your armour, for one moment in your history, will be magnified, scrutinised, dissected and exposed for all the world to see.

At this moment in time, Manchester United are the underdogs once again. Not such a bad thing as far as I’m concerned.

Be careful what you wish for… it might come true.