Perhaps with the credit crunch and global financial situation, Norwich Union's exit from Worthing shouldn't have really come as a surprise.

Despite the fact that they are a big multi-national company, I'm disappointed that, between us, we were not able to cut a deal.

A number of weeks ago, when it was announced that the social club at the Warren was to close, I and a couple of others at Worthing United came up with an idea to pitch to the company bosses.

I stress that, at this point, the news about the Worthing office closing had not been revealed.

But the idea was that the United youth section would take a lease on for the grounds and the social club, for either five, seven or 10 years.
To have 20 United squads based at Lyons Way is a logistical nightmare.

With The Warren grounds available, there was enough pitch space to enable Warren Sports to remain playing there in the Worthing League, as well as accommodating a large number of United's youth squads over the weekend for both training and matches.

But with a lease in place, lottery funding and local sponsorship could have been obtained, to sort out training lights, so the social club could have acted as a seven-day base for the junior club.

And that's without mentioning the facility of the swimming pool, which I'm sure 300-or-so children and their parents and siblings would have used.

My pitch to Norwich Union was that, despite the ongoing redundancies, it would great PR for the company, with them helping so many local youngsters and providing a quality community facility.

I originally spoke to someone at the Worthing office, before — a bit like the fire bucket in the old westerns — I was passed from person to person and ended up speaking to the "grand quaso's" PA in London.

In her defence, she gave me the courtesy of listening to what I had to say, before going away, speaking to her boss, and then coming back and saying thanks, but no thanks.

Norwich Union, pictured in last week's Herald, once famously stated that they were "here to stay".

I still think they could have done themselves a power of good, despite last week's news, by listening to our offer.

Feedback is always most welcome, so I'm indebted to Sean Loxham who e-mailed me regarding my comments on Euro 2008.

To clarify, I have, unlike others, never stated that England have a divine right to be in every major tournament.

In fact, I was there at Wembley against Croatia when Frank . . sorry . . . Scott Carson let those two early goals in, and we realised that despite pegging them back to 2-2, with the manager we had, we were never going to do anything.

Times have moved on, and with the saturation point of live football on TV, and with so many other sports also covered, this tournament — however exciting — is not going to have the same appeal for the viewers without England.

That doesn't mean the football quality suffers. My tip, Spain, are very going well, as are the Dutch and the aforementioned Croatians.

I'm sure as the tournament reaches its climax, viewers in this country will watch in numbers, but it's all about market forces.

I know that Sean, like many others, including myself, is a big Sussex cricket fan: but will they continue to sell out their Twenty20 groups games, now they are all but out of that particular tournament?