Sven needs a cautious approach on this pitch

Sven-Goran Eriksson, the football manager whose tangled love-life has given us years of entertainment, might wish to show some caution in his latest relationship — with Notts County as their director of football.

As part of his deal with the club, Eriksson, we’re told, has been promised a chunk of shares in Swiss Commodity Holding (SCH). This mysterious outfit was linked with the takeover of Notts County earlier this year. It claims to be one of the world’s biggest mining investment groups — odd, as Rio Tinto and Xstrata say they have never come across it.

Oh, and what’s this? The official news agency of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea to you and me) says SCH’s chief executive, one Shanti Sen, dropped in to Pyongyang bearing an unspecified gift for the country’s glorious leader, Kim Jong Il.

She didn’t meet Kim but handed the present to an official. Quite coincidentally, Eriksson himself has in the past been forced to deny he plans to become manager of the North Korean national football team. Manager for a country famously described as part of the axis of evil? Not a great career move.

Who’s the proud father?

Who actually invented the internet? Last Thursday saw the 40th anniversary of the global communication network and it unleashed a deluge of commentary from experts celebrating its development, but all cited different creators.

Leonard Kleinrock, who provided the theoretical foundations in 1962, was described as the forefather while Vint Cerf was called the father of the internet for giving us the “first description of the TC protocols” in 1974 ... Me neither. Then there is Britain’s own Tim Berners-Lee, who is credited with the world wide web.

Many people, however, may think that Al Gore created the web. An understandable error given his comment in 1999 during the US election campaign: “During my service in Congress, I took the initiative in creating the internet.” The things you’ll say to be president, eh.

Cuckoo? No, Rokos is just splashing out again

Brevan Howard’s Chris Rokos is playing Monopoly again. The hedgie made headlines in 2007 with his planning application to convert a four-storey London hotel into an eight-bedroom home. The property set him back £18m, he spent another £20m on the conversion (the diving pool and subterranean garage didn’t come cheap) and then had to appease the council by shelling out £500,000 for social housing — a provision usually levied only on commercial developers. His latest acquisition, an $8m (£5m) Miami penthouse, is not quite on the same scale as the London pad but it’s none too shabby: three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, three outdoor terraces and a pool. I wonder what’s next: a modest mansion in Switzerland, perchance? Brevan’s move to the land of cuckoo clocks can’t be far off now.

Europe is in Rock’s bad books

The powers that be at Northern Rock don’t like the term “bad bank”. So, how did it feel last Wednesday when the European Commission released a statement approving the restructuring of the Rock into a “good” and a “bad” bank. To make matters worse, it referred to a “bad bank” four times. Did the commission (like many financial journalists) get a sharp rap on the knuckles for using the b-word?

“We have discussed it with the EC,” said Northern Rock, “but obviously it has its own reasons for using that term.” One of those reasons might be that one in 10 of the mortgages in its — there’s no other word for it — bad bank is in arrears.

• How do you solve a problem like Shell? The oil giant said it will cull 5,000 jobs after profits fell 73% last week. Its cost-cutting measures need not be so severe. It could, for instance, re-think one rather expensive hire. We hear it is searching for an executive vice-president of communications. The lucky candidate will be in charge of 600 people and have an annual budget of $400m (£243m) to play with. To do what?

• It’s Movember. That time of year when men all over the country grow a moustache for a month to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Charity. More than 18,000 have registered this year and there are teams from Vodafone, JP Morgan, HSBC, Aviva, Morgan Stanley, RBS and Linklaters . The prize for best team name goes to the investment bank Jefferies: Mo means Mo. Good luck to all.

prufrock@sunday-times.co.uk

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