When are the Man of the Year
Awards out?

And is it too late to get some money on a potential winner? I only ask, as when the time comes I'm going to go large on Alan Shearer scooping the top honour.

Big Al probably thought his pace of life would quieten a little after he retired from the daily rigours of playing.

Not so AS, because no sooner had he untied those laces for the final time did the former England hitman find himself positioned as the nation's puppet of speculation. All this guy wants to do is sit on a sofa with Alan Hansen and Lee Dixon and talk about the Russians. But as soon as those cameras are rolling, the poor blighter can't even get the words Roman Pavlyuchenko out of his mouth without being set upon by either gung-ho Gary Lineker or jostling Jake Humphrey.

Shearer wants to demand BBC bosses grant him his own 'Q and A' segment during the Euros coverage so that he can bat off questions linking him to posts such as England (manager), Newcastle United (manager, assistant manager and board member), Blackburn Rovers (manager) and now Sheffield Wednesday (owner).

Al quite obviously isn't interested, and when he says the time isn't right, it really does seem that he means it.

Mind you, that might soon change if he is forced to sit through many more encounters as mind-numbing as Spain v Italy, before having to feign interest in the lengthy post-match patter.

I suppose, on the plus side, it could be said that stringing out painful analysis of a sleep-enducing encounters would be good practice for when he does finally land the Three Lions post.