THIS week topics beginning with the letter B have been prominent and I don’t just mean Brexit. 

Bale, Bury and Bolton have all made the back pages over money issues.

If our ex-player Gareth had gone to China I still find it hard to believe he would have got £1m a week. he could have sorted the financial problems at Bolton and Bury.

Both are apparently in danger of being kicked out of the Football League because of debts they have accrued for various reasons,

If Bale wanted to go to China but the Real Madrid president demanded a fee at  the last minute surely Gareth could have sat down with Jiangsu Suning and said ‘give it to him’ and I’ll start my wages in four weeks’ time.

It seems Gareth’s relationship with Zinedine Zidane is irreparable but I just hope it can be settled because he needs to play for his own sake - and of course the Welsh national team.

He was always recognised as being a nice enough young man and am sure the money has not changed him.

The problems at Bury and Bolton are a world away from Bale’s and highlight the difference between the haves of the Premiership and the havenots outside it. 

While Premier League clubs rake in loads of money via television sponsorship, lower-level clubs are finding it hard to pay wages. 

Apparently, Bury have been granted time to try and sort out their income tax problems out and Bolton have been helped with a £2m loan from the players’ union. 

A few weeks ago I mentioned that Gordon Taylor does a lot to help out players and I’m sure he was very keen to be able to help a club he used to play for. 

Notts County, the oldest Football League club of all before their relegation last year, are also in financial trouble. 

It was typical of our game that their neighbours and long-time rivals Nottingham Forest organised a collection at a pre-season friendly last week to help pay some staff wages. 

That just shows that underneath the match-day animosity there can be a lot of affection and sympathy between arch-rivals as things can often go wrong at any club.

* OUR ex-manager Mauricio Pochettino caught my attention this week by saying: I’m just a coach, not a manager.

He blasted his board in public by saying he had no say in the signing of players. 

Now I’ve said for many years that a lot of today’s ‘managers’ are not like those in the old days.

But there is still only one person that gets the sack if things don’t go right so I totally support Pochettino in this instance. 

His timing was good. He finished on a fairly good high last season and made the statement in a press conference after beating Real Madrid in a pre-season tournament in Munich. 

Some people have said it might be him saying ‘sack me if you want’ but I think Mauricio will want to carry on, at least for the time being, as he appears to have the team right behind him.

But I hope he gets the transfer side of things put right. 

Without knowing too much, it appears there was a similar situation when Les Reed left our club. To be fair to Les, he had to put his hands up and admit the players he brought in weren’t good enough to keep us out of a relegation battle. 

But my impression from a distance is that our current man in charge is Ralph. I can’t see him having other people picking his squad. As I’ve always said, arriving mid-season as he did last December is difficult with games every few days.

He has now had lots of time to not just get to know the players but for them to get to know him and his ways.

It would appear from interviews with seniors they are totally behind him. I just hope that if he thinks he needs one or two more players he can get them before the big kick-off against Burnley, another club beginning with ‘B’, next week.