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Anybody bored with the Spurs v West Ham squabble for the Olympic Stadium? I wouldn't blame you if you were.

In the last few weeks I have learned more about the at obscure European football grounds than anybody who doesn't actually build football grounds should ever be subjected to. And I won't be that fussed if I don't get to discuss planning permission with local government officials again.

But this decision is important to a lot of people, including two groups who we have not heard much from amid the posturing of the Premier League pair, supporters of and .

Give the stadium to Spurs and you put the mockers on ; give it to Spurs or West Ham and you probably force Orient to contemplate a beggar-thy-neighbour move of their own. Some choice.

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A year or so ago I likened reporting on Portsmouth FC's financial freefall to my stint doing car reviews for a motoring website - if I missed a deadline I could wait 12 months and resubmit the story, with a few tweaks, once a new version of the car, with those tweaks, had hit the forecourts. Following 's career is going the same way.

A month or so passes and another damning report, with a few tweaks, hits the newsagents. Nothing much changes, though. The same people who think Armstrong is Mother Theresa with muscles still think that, only more so. And the same people who are convinced he is the biggest sporting fraud of all time also still think that, with added certainty.

And yet, something has changed, or feels like it is about to change.

Depending on whom you believe (the saint or sinner camps), eight months of image-eroding reportage is about to be exploded as malicious gossip, or Armstrong will be charged with using public money to run a systematic doping programme. In other words, the reputation of a global sports star and cancer campaigner is on the line and, possibly, in the dock.

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Three and a half years ago, with the sun shining on a side that had just finished in the , Plymouth Argyle's directors gathered to talk about what the meeting's "suggested discussion points" described as "additional funding to take the team to the next level".

All agreed a genuine promotion push was unlikely on cash-flow projections and even standing still was going to be difficult unless the club found a lot more money. On that there was no need for debate.

But there was a very real need for debate - proper, honest and transparent debate - about where any new funding might come from and on what terms it would be accepted. Sadly, this exchange of views never took place and Argyle are now paying a huge price for such reticence.

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