The Steve Sidwell transfer saga again showed there is no room for sentiment in football.

Some senior players in the Albion dressing room apparently talked Sidwell out of joining Stoke City but, faced with a choice between Withdean and the Madjeski Stadium, can you really blame him for going?

He had no ties to Albion and it was not, as many people might have suspected, down to money. Dick Knight confirmed on Southern Counties Radio that Albion matched Reading's fee and personal terms for the player.

I interviewed the Albion chairman and saw the frustration on his face but until a new stadium at Falmer is built, Sidwell won't be the last player to turn down Albion.

Don't despair, though. I reckon by the time Albion play at Walsall a week on Saturday, Sidwell will have been replaced.

The fans are playing their part. About £10,000 of the 40 Note Fund has been used to help finance the Ben Roberts loan deal.

I was asked by a particularly pessimistic Albion fan in the Sportsman pub after the Pompey game when I would finally concede Albion were going down?

When it's mathematically impossible to stay up is the answer, although I still think it won't come to that. As Micky Adams used to say: "Keep the faith."

The decision by the English Cricket Board to allow England to play in Harare during the World Cup is the correct one. It is a classic case of history repeating itself.

In 1980, Margaret Thatcher (for younger readers she is best described as Tony Blair in a dress) tried to stop the British Olympic team competing at the Moscow Games following Russia's invasion of Afghanistan.

Thankfully, the likes of Duncan Goodhew, Daley Thompson, Steve Ovett, Seb Coe and Allan Wells took no notice and all returned with gold medals.

Had they not defied the Iron Lady and boycotted the games, would the Russians really have thought about pulling out of Afghanistan?

Of course they wouldn't and, regardless of what happens on the cricket field, the situation will not change in Zimbabwe either.

If Blair thought using sport to bring pressure on Mr Mugabe was that effective, why didn't he exclude the Zimbabwean team from last year's Commonwealth Games?

A proposed bid by London for the Olympic Games of 2012 is long overdue and it is refreshing to see Blair getting involved with sport in a positive way.

As the should-we-shouldn't-we debate rages, I was irritated to hear an American TV executive say only his nation is capable of making a profit from hosting the games.

With the business brains this country boasts, I don't understand why there have to be these projected losses. The facilities built would also benefit future generations of sportsmen and women in this country.

On the commercial side, why doesn't the government get someone like Richard Branson to run the bid? With his business expertise, I don't see how a London Olympics could fail.

One way to raise funds is through the lottery. Camelot would welcome a chance to rejuvenate its ailing product by pledging to give a percentage of profits to the project.

I'm sure many people who don't buy Lotto tickets would do so if they thought it was going to help build an Olympic stadium in the capital.

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