Meanwhile, football could take us to bin Laden in a way that nobody seems to be emphasising. All week, on the television news and in the papers, foreign correspondents have been picking through the pieces of paper found on the floors of al Qa'eda safe houses in Kabul and trying to work out whether they were discarded plans for a weapon of mass destruction or simply the manual for an Afghan washing machine. But was any of them keeping an eye out for programmes from the 93-94 season and back numbers of Four Four Two magazine? I doubt it. And yet we now know these items would provide unignorable indications that the trail was hot.