From Dallaglio’s medals to Cantona’s shorts, sporting memorabilia is big business | Emma John

Like transfer fees and ticket prices, mementoes are one more marker of sport’s rampant self-inflation The auctioneer cradled his gavel in his palm like a pipe, the handle pointing towards him. It gave his patter the air of a Victorian gentleman holding forth by the mantelpiece in a period drama. “Are you bidding, Wilf?