Whatever you might think of Beckham, my fondest memories of him will be in that England shirt - not for his flashes of temper, leading to notorious dismissals, but for the massively evident pride with which he wore the Three Lions over his heart, the utter commitment and dedication with which he put himself about the pitch in the England cause.

If this was a political leader being talked about then the current appraisal of Sir Alex's achievements would be nothing less than a whitewash, with dissenters seemingly shoved off to the side of any major media outlets.

So why do we love the Wigan underdog story? And interestingly, why does a Wigan relegation not bother us? Well, no matter whether you are right or left of center, work for Microsoft or Apple, or are a janitor or CEO, you most likely see yourself as somewhat of an underdog.

28 years ago, on May 11 1985, I went to watch Leeds United play at St Andrews, Birmingham City's ground, in order to support the United lads, who still had a faint mathematical chance of promotion. These were the bad old days, when football violence was still highly fashionable, and it was predictable that things would get out of hand given the slightest excuse.

Ferguson has his place in the history of the game. He will serve as the biggest negative example of how to ruin the previously positive image of a historically-respected football club, making of them a byword for arrogance and the tendency to ride roughshod over the rules and conventions of the game.

The bottom line is that Liverpool at their peak - and it was a hell of a peak - typified all the values of football that some of us remember from a pre-Sky, pre-glitz, pre-greed age when it really was all about a ball. Now, it's all about money, and contracts, and egos, and snide bitching to the media if you don't get all your own way.

The ultimate encouragement for a player to come out, would probably be that there were sufficient other gay peers for it not to be such an issue, or at least enough to be able to offer support. As it stands, that day seems a long way off. If the Premier League is to wait for its own Jason Collins, it may be waiting a very long time.

The fact is that the titles won since 1993 are devalued by the steep slope in Man U's favour of the playing field on which all have to compete. Liverpool were dominant in an even competition for the best part of two decades up to the 90s; it is now 23 years since they were champions, but their overall record remains formidable.

It is quite likely over the rest of the season the inability of Manchester United's keeper to deal with corners and the attendant publicity will lead to free-kicks, yellow cards and possibly worse going against West Ham by referees routinely cowed by the bigger clubs.

If Rooney doesn't stake his claim for a starting berth further forward it wouldn't be outlandish to suggest that now is the time, for him as much as the team, given his age and subsequent value to continue the process of finding himself in different colours.

At last, a Premier League football manager has gone public and given voice to a dark suspicion that thousands of us fans have harboured for a long time now. Roberto Mancini, may his name be blessed, says that teams facing the Mighty Manchester United are infected with a fatal lack of belief which amounts a lot of the time to actual fear.

It was late October in 1863 when Ebenezer Cobb Morley and his contemporaries gathered together in London's Freemason's Tavern, near to where Holborn tube station is today, to establish a code of rules for the regulation of football. Fast forward to today and the modern game is unrecognisable from those humble beginnings. Its global audience has never been bigger with interest in the English game growing year-on-year. With this comes huge expectation, from fans, players, managers and the media...

Independence for Tibetans is nowhere near; yet, the beautiful game has, in many ways, helped in keeping the flame alive. May Tibetan football continue its upward rise.

Leeds United was the team, back then. On their day, the lads would toy with their rivals as a particularly cruel cat might do with a half-dead mouse. This was 1972, when Leeds might well have won pretty much everything, but had to settle in the end for their solitary FA Cup triumph, missing out on the Title right at the death in typically controversial circumstances.

Rio Ferdinand, a fully paid up member to the 'Golden Generation' that dominated the England team for most of the last decade, seems now to have followed his former defensive partner John Terry into the pasture of former England players.

The Greek footballer who celebrated a goal by performing what appeared to be a Nazi salute has been given a lifetime ban from all national teams. G...

Arsenal can only improve now. With rumoured targets in Stevan Jovetic, Ashley Williams and more, we are finally improving rather than replacing - something Wenger has sought to do for a long time now. This season is yet to be concluded, but boy, am I ready for next season.

Today, Chelsea sit fourth in the league and in all likelihood will cling onto that place or better for the remainder of the season. It's mathematically possible for them to be champions still but a gap of 19 points to United with 10 games to go would require miracles of Red Sea proportions to make that happen.

There's nothing like a controversial refereeing decision for lighting the touchpaper on a game of football. Following the goalline gaffe that cost Hibs victory over Hearts last weekend, we run down some of the football world's all-time biggest "What are you doing, ref?!" moments.

There are moments during a football match when even the most ardent atheist may wonder whether Divine Intervention played a starring role. And during ...

Benitez is failing the most important rule of being a successful interim manager - delivery. The prime objective of interim management is delivery; delivering change and improvement which should be balanced with an approach that makes the client (in this case Chelsea) look good. Benitez' has delivered neither change nor improvement in his four months at the club.