It’s strange to think that “Wag” – the acronym for footballers’ wives and girlfriends – entered the Oxford English Dictionary only last year. Already Wags seem as traditionally English a concept as out-of-town supermarkets or chicken vindaloo. Yet they first penetrated public consciousness only in 2006 when they accompanied their husbands to the World Cup in Germany and got themselves photographed tanned orange, drunk and brandishing shopping bags while dancing on bar tables in Baden-Baden.

This week the Wags must be quaking in their Jimmy Choos. Lord Triesman, the Football Association’s chairman, estimated English football’s total debt at £3bn. He wants – dread words – a salary cap. Liverpool have delayed building their new stadium. Manchester United’s sponsor, AIG, has, in effect, been nationalised. Could the credit crunch do to Wags what it did to Lehman Brothers?