How many degrees of it could there be? There's: a bit difficult; and (plain) difficult; and very difficult; and, maybe, extremely difficult (if 'extremely' is thought to be a stronger intensifier than 'very'). Anything else? You don't know the half of it. Here's Cristiano Ronaldo before last night's game against his former club, Manchester United. He's asked if he could ever envisage playing for Manchester City and replies:
I'm not going to say it is impossible, because in football the impossible doesn't exist.
But I can say it would be very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very difficult to play at Man City. VERY difficult because of Manchester United.
That difficult and still not quite impossible. I hope the difficulty suffices. (Thanks: MS.)
While I'm on the subject of football, let me register another worry I now have - which is that my ever-loving wife and children's writer (among many other accomplishments) might start turning out for Chelsea.
