For example, Tottenham Hotspur's decision to play their home Champions League group matches at Wembley Stadium this season proved a financial success first go off on Wednesday – the crowd of 85,011 was a club record, the highest English club Champions League attendance and highest ever English club home crowd.

It was also a failure in terms of a result as Tottenham, despite having trained on a pitch marked out to the Wembley proportions, lost their opening group match 2-1 to a Monaco side whom many observers felt had been lifted by the experience of playing at England’s pre-eminent stadium.

The Tottenham experience matched that of North London rivals Arsenal when they played two seasons of Champions League home games at Wembley in the late 1990s – and failed to qualify both times in what manager Arsene Wenger later described as a "nightmare experience".

Tottenham couldn’t claim they hadn’t been warned – several ex-Arsenal players, including Martin Keown and Ray Parlour, expressed the view that playing at Wembley was effectively giving up home advantage and embracing the same "away" status as the official visitors…

Second example. Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall has now lost two of his major personal endorsements after kneeling during the playing of the National Anthem. Both the Air Academy Federal Credit Union and telecom company CenturyLink have now withdrawn their support for the player who has emulated the protest pioneered recently by fellow American Football player Colin  Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers, who commented: "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of colour."

Shifting the focus to the Rio Paralympics which will conclude on Sunday (September 18), there was a relatively predictable discrepancy in the rewards on offer to Olympic gold medallist Joseph Schooling, who beat US legend Michael Phelps to gold in the pool, and to fellow swimmer Yip Pin Xiu, who this week became her country’s first double Paralympic champion.

Schooling received a victory parade and an award of SGD$1 million (£554,000/$735,000/€654,000) as well as being offered free flights for life by Air Asia. Yip, meanwhile, is reported to be in line for SGD$160,000 (£55,000/$73,000/€65,000) before tax. (That said, Singapore Airlines have tweeted those who have protested against this discrepancy to "stay tuned to find out more about the celebratory activities that we are planning for her return trip"…)

Some things are less easy to predict.

Just this minute, for example, I’ve seen some events news tweeted by Mansfield Town FC: "Due to unforeseen circumstances, clairvoyant Trisha will not be appearing in the Kevin Bird Suite tomorrow night."

Trisha has not been the only one affected by unforeseen circumstances this week. Four years ago at the London 2012 Olympics, Tomasz Zielinski of Poland finished an honourable ninth in the men’s 94kg weightlifting with a combined total of 385 kilograms, 33kg less than that managed by gold medallist Ilya Ilyin of Kazakhstan.

Since then, however, a series of positive doping tests have drastically altered the landscape of that competition. The efforts of Ilyin and the Russian runner-up Aleksandr Ivanov of Russia have been annulled. And the most recent round of retrospective tests by the International Olympic Committee has resulted in the disqualification of original sixth and seventh placers. Intiqam Zairov of Azerbaijan and Almas Uteshov of Kazakhstan,

That all left original bronze medallist Anatolie Ciricu of Moldova poised to inherit gold - until he too showed up positive in a retrospective test and is currently provisionally suspended. Ciricu, who was previously banned for two years in 2007, was ruled out of the sport for eight years in 2015 following a second positive test.

All of which means that gold now looks as if it is heading for original fifth-place finisher Saeid Mohammadpour of Iran, who managed 402kg, with silver destined for eighth-placed Kim Min-jae of South Korea and Zielinski, one place behind him, appearing due for bronze. Even given weightlifting’s doping record in recent years, that must surely have come as a bit of a surprise for the Pole….  

But if you are searching for unpredictable sporting outcomes, you need look no further than the Paralympics.

Yesterday, for example, Britain’s Opening Ceremony flag-bearer Lee Pearson, seeking an 11th Paralympic equestrian title in his fifth Paralympic Games, settled for silver by Austria’s Pepo Puch. That was slightly unexpected. But even more unexpectedly, Pearson is said to be allergic to horses, and has to take antihystamines. (Echoes of Britain’s 2006 European long jump silver medallist Jade Johnson, who claimed she was allergic to sand. I guess this would be a good reason to remain airborne for as long as possible….)

At a deeper level, however, the story of individual Paralympians is, so often, astonishing.

Who would have believed that, just two years after the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis put an end to a highly promising sprinting career for Britain’s Kadeena Cox, she would end up as the first British Paralympian to top the podium in two different sports at the same Games since 1988?

Having secured the T38 400 metres title in a world record time of 60.71sec just four days after winning cycling gold in the C4-5 500m time trial, Cox commented:  "I’m gold medallist and world record holder in two sports. Oh, that is literally what I was dreaming of."

But then who would have believed that, on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the crash in which he lost both his legs, Italy’s former Formula 1 driver Alex Zanardi would win his third Paralympic hand-cycling gold medal in the H5 road time trial, four years after earning two golds at London 2012.

"I feel very lucky," said the 49-year-old Zanardi, who races again today in the road race. "I feel my life is a never-ending privilege."

And who would have believed this story of a young man who lost part of his right leg following a rocket attack in his native Syria four years ago.

Ibrahim Al Hussein was hit as he ran across the street to help an injured friend following an earlier explosion.

He managed to crawl away from the scene and was rescued by some of his friends. However, the damage to his leg meant doctors had to amputate the limb from the mid-calf down – and a lack of anaesthetic meant, in his own words, that he "woke up twice during surgery and saw everything".

A few months later Al Hussein, seeking further treatment for his injury, fled to Turkey before reaching the Greek island of Samos, travelling on a rubber dinghy.

Having being granted asylum in Greece two years ago, he settled in Athens and had a prosthetic leg fitted before resuming his earlier sporting career as a swimmer.

And in Rio the 27-year-old has found himself feted as one of the two members of the Independent Paralympic Athletes team, swimming in both the 100m and 50m Freestyle-S9 events.

"I have been dreaming of this for 22 years," he said. "I thought my dream had gone when I lost my leg but now it is back for real. I want to send a message to all those injured that they too can achieve their dreams."

To be sure, the Olympics throw up fantastic stories. But the Paralympics, by their very nature, are more richly laden with tales of the unexpected…