What about our banker-footballers? Didn't they stash a little away in the good years? After all, however odd their tactics might look in retrospect, they certainly brought in good results for a few years. Surely there was some slack in the system? Apparently not. For the crowd, then, first humiliation, then impoverishment, and finally the begging bowl.

Given the context of this performance, there would be little need for "the David Beckhams and Wayne Rooneys of corporate finance" to be financially penalised.

Having played professional sport for 13 years, I know a bit about angry fans. The banker-footballers' team bus would be hijacked on the way out of the stadium and barricaded in. Then the furious fans would mete out cruel and unusual punishments on the "stars". First up? A long disquisition on the significance of credit default swaps and collateralised debt obligations.