POOLS winner Viv Nicholson (remember her?) had a one-word answer when she was asked what she was going to do with her new-found riches after picking eight draws on the football coupon. She said it three times.

Spend, Spend, Spend! was the message from the Castleford lass who scooped the jackpot back in those pre-lottery days.

Now, decades later, her financial expertise is being followed to the letter by ex-players handing out advice to their old clubs. Not for them any of this austerity or tightening of belts nonsense if they are expecting to challenge Chelsea for the Premier League title.

It’s unlikely that Jose Mourinho would need any pep-talk on how to spend some of Manchester United’s wealth, but Paul Ince is happy to offer his suggestions.

Jose MUST sign some A-listers or he can wave the title goodbye, was the former Old Trafford midfielder’s advice in a Sunday paper exclusive. He stops short of actually naming the A-listers he has in mind, but two pages further on, Jose comes up with his own name – and it’s not Cristiano Ronaldo. The man on Mourinho’s mind is Tottenham’s £100m striker Harry Kane.

Ince would like him to sign another midfielder – one who scores more goals – but he has every faith in Mourinho to take United to the top.

At the other end of the East Lancashire Road, Robbie Fowler believes that Jurgen Klopp has to splash out big money if Liverpool are push for their first Premier League title and that includes carrying on their pursuit of Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk.

Arsene Wenger is never short of advice on how to spend Arsenal’s money and Pep Guardiola us all for splashing out to boost City’s challenge. One manager who can’t seem to spend money no matter how hard he tries is Newcastle’s Rafa Benitez.

He’s already been snubbed by a player who chose Swansea instead of St James’s and a goalkeeper who would prefer to sit on the Chelsea bench rather than move to the North East.

The season is still a few weeks away but it looks ominously like the big-spending quintet will be pushing to overhaul Chelsea while the rest jostle for positions down the field. Or kick off in August with survival their only priority. And that clearly means no repeat of the Leicester miracle.

Which of the big-spenders is your money on?

THE best try I ever saw came back in 1994 at Wembley when Martin Offiah spotted a gap and ran through the Leeds team to score a breathtaking solo after picking up the ball near his own posts.

That was until Saturday morning.

While Offiah’s was strictly a one-man show, the try by Sean O’Brien for the Lions in the first Test was an outstanding team effort started when Liam Williams broke out of his own 22 and set up the opening for some thrilling team work that finished with O’Brien seeing off the last of the All Blacks defence.

We could argue all day about the merits of this compared with Gareth Edwards’ try for the Barbarians against the All Blacks in 1973 – still reckoned by many to be the best try ever – but this was a Test match.

And for me that gives it the edge even over Offiah’s cup final special.

The British Lions have carried the hopes and dreams of the mass media – especially the Sky Sports team – ever since they landed in New Zealand but how one defeat – even one that was hardly a surprise against the all-conquering All Blacks – can change things.

They were sloppy, according to former Lions coach Clive Woodward; humbled and rumbled said one critic. A further headline announced: Snoozers to losers. (Not quite sure what that meant).

Still, nobody’s perfect, not even newspaper reporters. And one man who won’t be believing everything he reads is Owen Farrell.

If the Lions fly-half could have read a copy of one Sunday newspaper he would have felt reasonably happy. The paper gave him a creditable 8 out of 10.

By Monday, that had been reduced to five with the opinion: His passing was off and he missed a kick. Needs to prove a point in Wellington. Opinions…everybody’s got one haven’t we?

SPARE a moment to have some sympathy for Barrow cricketer Liam Livingstone.

After a dodgy introduction to England’sT20 team when he struggled to reach 16, he was out for a first-ball duck at Cardiff on Sunday. His time will come but his position halfway down the order with only a few overs left is hardly ideal if you want to make your mark.