There are some things in life I can almost accept, cope with and move on - like when a laptop crashes in the middle of a student tackling a diagnostic test and we both get mad together before looking at the positives ('just think, when you try it again next week you'll already know some of the questions!'); like when it rains all the way through, according to the weather presenter, a supposedly lovely sunny day and at home time I remember my umbrella is up the corner in the kitchen! We've all been there and thought, with the beauty of hindsight, if only I had….

There are some things in life I can almost accept, cope with and move on - like when a laptop crashes in the middle of a student tackling a diagnostic test and we both get mad together before looking at the positives ('just think, when you try it again next week you'll already know some of the questions!'); like when it rains all the way through, according to the weather presenter, a supposedly lovely sunny day and at home time I remember my umbrella is up the corner in the kitchen!

We've all been there and thought, with the beauty of hindsight, if only I had…. done this or that differently.

Well, there are just a few things in life that there's no getting to grips with, including those interminable international weekends when you just know that one of the home nations will exceed expectations (and it won't be England!), and those terrible transfer gossips who claim so and so was seen with a local estate agent looking round an 'expansive mansion set in ten acres of rambling Norfolk countryside' prior to being photographed ('well I think it was him') in the fresh handmade pizza queue at Asda! And when that person being linked with City used to frequent enemy pastures I guess it's even harder to digest!

So City are reportedly interested in former Ipswich and current Newcastle defender Titus Bramble if some of the papers and various websites are to be believed. A quick look at some of the Toon Army sites and rather than a new contract being offered to said player they the general feeling is that one way tickets to whichever club has open arms outstretched should be the order of the day!

A tad harsh? Well maybe, as on his day he can be more than decent and may well, to coin the old phrase, 'do a good job at this level', but on his 'off day' he can be cumbersome, slow, clumsy, make the wrong decisions…you know what I mean…and may be no better than what we already have, plus he's worn the blue and white so just how forgiving will we fans be if his one way ticket leads him eastwards? It's all hypothetical for anyone self-respecting and with the means will have their pizza flown in from Italy anyway - so my conclusion has to be that it was John Terry in Asda! (I wish x 1,000,000!)

Away from that little bout of speculationitis only for another to take hold.

By the middle of this week some other sources were suggesting that 'talks' were being held between Crewe and former Liverpool defender Jon Otsemobor and ourselves with, surprise surprise, those Crewe fans keen to comment wishing their soon to be out-of-contract player...hmmm...a one way ticket to whichever club has open arms outstretched!

Being realistic about it when do fans actually wish departing players all the best and pledge to watch their future careers with interest? Not that often I suppose, but of recent examples here I do recall that many Manchester City fans felt that Darren Huckerby had not been given a fair crack of the whip under Kevin Keegan and therefore wished him well when heading to Norfolk permanently, and most Crewe fans were sad to see Dean Ashton leave them but could see why he wanted to make the step up when he did.

But when another team brings back a once-worshipped hero to his former club you can almost guarantee three things: firstly that the player will get a warm round of applause (provided they haven't become a recognised 'Judas' that is) often through gritted teeth; secondly, that they will be booed by sections of the crowd every time they get a whiff of the ball or attempt to make a tackle, and thirdly that they will have a below-par game and then score the winner deep into injury time.

Oh well. With a return to this weekend of league action (thank goodness!) let's hope we can roll onto Colchester with the fighting spirit of Boudicca's warriors in 60 A.D. and roll on out again with three points. Hopefully then the manager might stump up for some pizzas in Asda on the way home and the City faithful can play some real player spotting instead of all of this 'my mate's sister's cousin's friend said'…nonsense.