Image source, Reuters

How much would you pay to watch Steven Gerrard's last home game for Liverpool? £50? £500? How about £1,300?

On Tuesday, the prices on ticketbis.net ranged from more than £100 to £1,324.64 before the captain's farewell against Crystal Palace at Anfield on Saturday.

There'll be hell on if he starts on the bench.

Image source, Getty Images

Bayern Munich's former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was magnanimous in defeat last night, backing his ex-side to win the Champions League.

He also compared Lionel Messi to Brazil legend Pele. "He is the best player of all time," said Guardiola. So, it would appear, in the comparison, that Pele comes off second-best.

Image source, Getty Images

OK, let's take a break from the KP saga for a moment and move into less choppy waters, where the good ship Barcelona is sailing happily to the Champions League final. Luis Enrique's side lost the semi-final second leg battle in Munich last night, but won the war, thanks mainly to their 3-0 first-leg win in the Nou Camp.

So, we are now 50% on the way to an El Classico final showdown in Europe's premier club competition. Real Madrid need to overcome a 2-1 deficit against Italian side Juventus to bring that to fruition. More on that later.

Much like Kevin Pietersen, former Australia international Shane Warne is not one for pulling punches. His tweets this morning, external are a testimony to that...

Image source, Shane Warne

Image source, Shane Warne

"I'd have loved them to say to him 'you're an expert in T20 cricket, our one-day cricket is atrocious, so you're going to play T20 cricket for England."

"You don't want Kevin Pietersen to be lost to English cricket forever. Yes, at times he can be an idiot, an absolute idiot, but he's got a lot to offer."

"In Andrew Strauss they've got the right man for the role… the whole job spec suited Andrew Strauss, his personality, the way he will sit back. I'm more of a hands-on person."

These are just some of the quotes from Michael Vaughan on yesterday's Tuffers and Vaughan programme on BBC Radio 5 Live. It is well worth a listen.

Image source, Getty Images

You may have seen 127 Hours, the Danny Boyle film where James Franco gets trapped under a rock and has to cut his own arm off. Well, here is 31 hours: a sad and sorry tale of lost trust, deceit and a whole load of bitterness, set in the crazy world of cricket. Cutting your own arm off may be preferable to trawling your way through every ugly detail.

Image source, Getty Images

If you want the full lowdown on yesterday's events, including Andrew Strauss' initial interview, Kevin Pietersen's response and the opinion of figures from across the cricketing world then you'll probably want to dip into our story. Warning: it does not make pretty reading, especially if you care about English cricket.

The KP assault, external on Andrew Strauss and the ECB continues via Twitter...

Image source, Kevin Pietersen

The more optimistic of us may have believed that Pietersen's England career was not completely over yesterday afternoon, with Andrew Strauss suggesting his international exile was only for the "immediate future". You would have to be looking on the brightest of bright sides to picture him an England shirt again following the last 12 hours.

Image source, Daily Star

The Daily Star plough their own furrow, external (barring a three word mention of Pietersen in the top left corner) by going with a rumoured Chelsea move for keeper John Ruddy, last night's Champions League and Gareth Bale's ongoing Real Madrid woes. The message is clear: football sells.

Image source, Daily Mail

Bitter? You can say that again Daily Mail., external End? Almost certainly, despite Andrew Strauss' attempts to make us believe the door was slightly ajar for KP.

Image source, Daily Mirror

The Daily Mirror carry on the KP anger theme,, external adding that it will all be going down very well in Australia ahead of this summer, particularly if Pietersen's claims that England have been "given permission to lose the Ashes" are true. Wound, meet salt.

Image source, Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph proudly brandish the column, external from which so many of today's back pages have resulted. Fury, deceit and the smell of a bridge being completely burnt.

Image source, Getty Images

Good morning all. Do we really need to continue talking about Kevin? Yes, it appears we do.

After the Andrew Strauss interview yesterday, in which England's new director of cricket confirmed that Kevin Pietersen would not be returning to the national team, the country's leading run-scorer in all formats has hit back in typical KP fashion, with a newspaper column hinged around the theme of deceit.

And so, not for the first time in his life, KP is headline news...