OPEN your minds a minute and try and imagine the following scenario.

Just over a week ago I walked into a television producer’s office armed with a script for a football-based soap in the hope of hitting the jackpot and giving up the day job.

I had mapped out a few episodes that I thought would be dramatic enough to grab viewers interest.

In the first episode one of the main characters, who has more money than sense (although technically that only requires him to have a fiver) and who is a little on the wild side, sets fire to his mansion after letting off fireworks in his bathroom – and is then found attempting to remove suitcases of cash from said abode as the building is burning down.

In the next episode the team he plays for beats their arch rivals by six goals to one on their opponents ground and thus sets them up as the new favourites to be winners of the top league in the world – with the alleged impromptu pyromaniac proving a hero with two of the goals.

Then in the episode after that the club’s former goal-scoring hero is told he can basically go rot in the reserves on a punitive £200,000-plus a week salary because he refused to come on as a substitute in a European game.

He in turn contemplates suing the manager for defamation of character, a move which would see half the club’s staff facing a date in the high court.

And the upshot of all this – I was kicked out of the TV executive’s office because it was all too far fetched.

But in the real world that scoreline genuinely was Manchester United 1 Manchester City 6 – just in case you missed it.