Throw the R away…

"Daddy, does this mean we have an R next to our name?" asked my ten-year-old daughter Nell on the walk to school, after my midnight return from a long day's journey into nightmares at Wigan. We bought a paper to confirm the horrible fact.

"At least the R won't be there next season, unless we go down to League One," I said hopefully.

At the start of the season Nell asked: "Why did we appoint a manager who got his team relegated?" And in that judgement she was more astute than Sullivan and Gold.

Still, her sister Lola says we'll win more games in a different league and Nell's made me a card reading: "Dear Daddy, I am very sorry to hear that West Ham United FC (the best team in the whole wide universe) are going down and bottom. When I grow up they will rule the world, Love Nell."

Maybe she'll be manager one day and we'll never see the R word again...