Fresh from the latest news of another intervention by the central banks of Japan, the US and Europe, and the bailouts of AIG, Merrill Lynch and Lehmans, we have done some calculations. We were going to do them on the back of a matchbox, but there wasn’t enough space for all the zeros. The rough conclusion to our basic, transparent and easy mathematics is that well over US$300 billion has just been pumped into the ‘free’ financial markets.

Wow! Is the obvious response, yet apparently – at least in the case of the US$85 billion pumped into AIG about 24 hours ago – this 'cash injection' is not enough to rid the markets of risk.

Back to the analogy. One of our groups is made up of a bunch of multinational, overpaid egotists into which benefactors (be it an Arabian oil baron, or the US Federal Reserve and its friends) seem happy to pour endless amounts of cash into a system which they can never beat. However much money they spend, it is becoming clear that neither the dark masters of the financial markets nor Manchester City will never be in a position to control their respective systems.

While the disintegration may mean the players in the world of football will have to sell one or two of their fancy car fleet and their wives or girlfriends may have to manicure less and even give up on hair extensions, those retail investors that play in the financial markets will have to give back their only car and get used to saying the word penury rather than pension.