At first glance, the decision by Wigan's players to refund those fans who travelled to last week's public humiliation by Tottenham Hotspur seems like a nice gesture.

That they cared enough to make a gesture was good, as many other squads wouldn't have bothered. Giving something back to fans who had to endure a 9-1 mauling was the least they could do.

But, when you look into the gesture in more detail, it starts to look like it really was a case of 'the least they could do'.

The total bill for the fans' tickets was less than £15,000. When you divide that up among the first team squad it means the players will be forking out less than £1,000 each.

To you or me that's a large sum of money and would almost certainly mean having to go without some important things for several weeks. But for these players, that sort of money is a drop in the ocean. Some of them will be on £40,000 a week.

So despite putting in a performance of abject uselessness and becoming only the second team in Premier League history to concede nine goals, some of those players will be going home with a net profit of £39,000 for their week's 'work'.

For starters, it would have been considerably nicer if they had chipped in to cover the fans' other expenses. As anybody who has ever travelled to a game will know, the ticket is normally the least of your financial outlays. Petrol, parking, train tickets, food, drink, programmes and the other bits and pieces push up the bill considerably.

So offering the fans, say, £100 per ticket would have been a much more acceptable gesture.

But, to my mind, even that doesn't go far enough. If they really wanted to say they were sorry, if they really wanted to show they felt awful about the humiliation they had put their supporters through, they should have collectively agreed to give a week's salary to a charity of the fans' choice.

Now that would have been a gesture.

Derby relief for Merseyside

This afternoon, one of the biggest derbies in English football takes place at the end of what has not been the best of weeks for either of the two Merseyside clubs.

Liverpool, as expected, slipped quietly out of the Champions League despite their 1-0 victory away to Debrecen. The damage had been done earlier in the campaign with late goals against Lyon twice costing them dearly. They now face Fiorentina in their final group game with nothing to play for, a situation which must be heartbreaking for the likes of Gerrard and Carragher, players who thrive on pride.

For me, the image that sums up Liverpool's season so far is the one of the players huddled round that television set in the Debrecen tunnel hoping the other result would go their way and save their necks.

It really shouldn't come to that for a team of Liverpool's status. But obviously, Rafa Benitez has nothing to do with it does he? Or so some of you keep telling me by e-mail. Every week.

However, if Liverpool have had a disturbing week then I think Everton's was downright terrifying.

A comprehensive 3-0 defeat to Manchester United at the weekend was followed by another loss in midweek, this time at the hands of struggling Hull, leaving them just a few points off the relegation places.

And while things were crumbling on the pitch, so were Everton's off-pitch aspirations when the government rejected their plans to move to a new 50,000-seater, £400 million stadium in the nearby town of Kirkby.

Over the past couple of decades I have lost count of the amount of teams that have left old and crumbling stadiums for pastures new. Leicester, Arsenal, Southampton, Middlesborough, Manchester City, Sunderland, Hull, Wigan, Bolton and Darlington spring instantly to mind. And Wimbledon not only changed grounds about four times but also changed their entire geographical location. Annoyingly.

Everton, though, are the first club I can recall having their plans vetoed by government. And that says a lot about the directors, who must have got their homework seriously wrong to put so much effort into something only to see it fall at the final hurdle.

Even Liverpool's owners managed to get new stadium plans approved, albeit they don't have the cash to actually build it. And probably haven't even told each other where it is going to be.

All in all it has been a week both clubs would like to forget with as much haste as humanly possible.

And the beauty of football is that they have the very opportunity to do just that today when they go head-to-head at Goodison Park.

As anyone who supports a team with a city rival will know, winning a derby match is up there among the most satisfying of all victories. For those 90 minutes little else matters.

League position, European fate, chances of ever moving into a new stadium - they all pale into insignificance. The only important thing is getting one over on your oldest, nearest and dearest enemy.

In Sheffield, for example, I know plenty of fans of both teams who would gladly suffer a season from hell provided they beat the other Sheffield team home and away. Sounds illogical, I admit, but logic is not the strongest emotion in evidence during derby games.

The other thing about derbies, similar to cup matches, is that form is also not a major consideration. Both teams lift themselves for close encounters of the neighbourly kind and how they have performed in the past is no guarantee of how they will perform on the day.

Today, that is probably a blessing because neither team is exactly setting the world alight at the moment.

The current Liverpool and Everton teams are a bit like energy-saving versions of what they once were.

They still work and do the same sort of job but without any of the brightness or sparkle of past teams.

So who is going to win? If it were a normal match between two teams that are not geographically linked, you would probably have to go with Liverpool. They are struggling and have more owners than fit strikers, but they still have the better team on paper.

But, as I said, this isn't a normal match and different criteria apply. On that basis I am going for an end-to-end, pulsating game, two red cards, one penalty and finishing in a 3-3 draw.

So now you know what result not to put your money on.

Granting no reprieves

Here's a little suggestion to all football managers: if Avram Grant ever turns up at your club to take a director of football role, start clearing your desk.

The Israeli may be a nice chap but he seems to be turning into the kiss of death for managers who work with him.

No sooner had he got his feet under the table at Chelsea than Jose Mourinho was shown the door, and who happened to step into the manager's shoes? Mr Grant.

Then he turns up at Portsmouth for his second stint as director of football. A few weeks later and Paul Hart is out of a job, leaving the way clear for Mr Grant to take over.

He's sort of a football management version of the grim reaper.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com.