GIVEN the flood of foreign players into British football in recent years, someone was bound to get their fingers burned.

And it appears that Sunderland are the latest to suffer from the 'it's not like it said in the brochure' syndrome.

According to one Sunday newspaper, the club is keen to sue a Third Division Uruguayan side from whom they bought Honduran international Milton Nunez for £1.1 million.

In fact, the Wearsiders thought they were buying Nunez from top-flight club Nacional Montevideo only to lose something in the translation.

I assume the deal was handled by agents and the lad must have played well on the vidoes Sunderland presumably watched.

However, the balloon went up when he failed to make much of an impact at the Stadium of Light where his appearances have been, to say the least, sporadic.

Sunderland smelled a rat and have acted accordingly, but they're not the first to be left short-changed over a transfer that didn't quite work out as planned.

Graeme Souness, whose shrewd buys have taken Rovers back into the big-time, once recruited a certain Ali Dia to play for Southampton, admittedly without paying any money for him.

Reportedly recommended by, and possibly related to, former world footballer of the year George Weah, Dia lasted less than 45 minutes in the Premiership and was last spotted playing for Gateshead.

Mistaken identity can be a tricky problem and big or small no-one is immune. Rochdale were widely believed to have signed the wrong Paul Williams back in the early nineties.

Pleasant bloke that he was, and once the scorer of a stunning goal against the mighty Scarborough, the story goes that the big striker was not the Paul Williams of Stockport that Dale had in mind.

And it's not just football. When Australia plucked off-spinner Peter Taylor out of obscurity to face England in 1986, it was suggested the wrong Taylor had been called up.

Of course, being an Aussie he did the business any way. And the way England's current Test squad are falling over like nine-pins before the Ashes series has even started, the tourists could probably open the bowling with Rory McGrath and still win.

CONTRARY to popular opinon, David Graveney and the rest of the beleaguered England selectors did not contemplate flying home Jason Robinson, Martin Johnson and Jonny Wilkinson to replace the injured trio of Graeme Thorpe, Michael Vaughan and Ashley Giles ahead of the first Test at Edgbaston, which starts tomorrow.

However, what the heroic Lions did prove is that the Aussies are beatable at some things.

And if England's cricketers can carry some of that same belief with them into the all-important opener in Birmingham you never know.

On paper, the tourists have the class to prevail. But Nasser Hussain has engendered a new fighting spirit and with a spearhead of Darren Gough, Andy Caddick and Craig White, England could upset the odds if they can get enough runs on the board.

DESPITE the heroics of Barry Cowan, the British showing at Wimbledon -- Tim Henman apart -- has been typically poor and has prompted the annual debate about the parlous state of our game.

However, until the Government pulls its collective finger out and gives sport some priority we are always going to struggle on the world stage in many sports, except when supremely talented individuals manage to beat the system and fight their own way to the top.

So until finances and commitment are channelled in the right areas -- starting at school -- why not revel in the role of plucky losers?

It's only when we expect the likes of Greg Rusedski and Henman to go all the way do we really get disappointed.