Watching someone cheat stylishly is far more entertaining than prosaic probity. Thierry Henry, upon whose elegant shoulders has been heaped the corpulent bulk of the insufferably high minded English sports press’ opprobrium, remains the most charmingly witty and scintillatingly intelligent player to have ever graced the Premier League. He has single-handedly (no pun, etc.) prevented a pedestrian Irish team from clogging up next summer’s World Cup, to the forgivable outrage of the Irish (though who among those was not delighted by Maradona’s coup de grâce to put England out in ‘86?), and the tiresome condemnation of everyone else. Thierry, for this, and so much else, I salute you! There, another use of the Sports tag.