Watching the World Cup I noticed the number of pundits compared to the old days has really gone up.

It sometimes seems a bit of a competition between the broadcasters, and I haven’t been too impressed with most of them.

There is one, Gary Neville, who did play a lot of games for England and for a period was assistant manager with Roy Hodgson.

I have to say when watching him on the TV I don’t think he looks to try and be different or to over impress.

Whilst I wouldn’t always agree with him I have to say he seems a genuine football man.

I was interested to see that he was called in to speak at the House of Commons. I’m not sure Ian Wright or Alan Shearer would have been disappointed not to get the call.

The reason was that he had commented strongly about the fact that Wembley could possibly be sold to the owner of Fulham, Shahid Khan, in a deal apparently worth £600m, potentially rising to £1bn.

Neville said that the justification from The FA for taking the money - that it could be reinvested in the lower levels of the game - was rubbish.

I tend to agree with him in so far as Wembley has always been an iconic feature of not only London but the whole of England.

Its pictures have always been shown all around the world and it is the equivalent in some ways to the Tower of London, the Eiffel Tower etc, and particularly when it had the twin towers, which I always thought could have been retained.

If in fact it was to be sold to this gentleman, who also owns an NFL team called the Jacksonville Jaguars in America, it could well make Wembley just like any other stadium holding not just football but all other sports.

As for the argument over investment at lower levels I agree with Gary Neville that there is plenty of money around our sport at present that could contribute to that rather than cashing in on the sale of our national stadium.

I have mentioned that I have been for many years an ambassador for the Football Foundation.

They send me a list every month of work they have been doing all around the country. It can go from contributing maybe £300,000 for a small club to improve facilities to as much as £3m for installing new 3G pitches, which are a modern version of an all-weather pitch allowing it to be used every day of the year.

They also often install floodlights as well so the pitches can be used during the day by schoolchildren and in the evening by the local community.

This money comes from a combination of the lottery and the Premier League.

One of Gary Neville’s points was that Premier League clubs could contribute by taking a little less each year from the television money. Let’s face it £20m each would be £400m, which would more than help.

Another of his suggestions which I totally agree with is taking a little more from the agents.

When you see, for instance, on one transfer, Mr Pogba going to Manchester United, the club had to pay £89m for him, and in addition it was reported £41m to his agent.

I think that something could be altered in those rules which would more than help to top up the whole amount to cancel out the necessity of selling Wembley.

I well remember the excitement of Alan Ball, who had won the World Cup, getting the chance to play there again, and Ivan Golac gobsmacked because it was his dream to play football at the stadium.

Whilst I cannot necessarily see Gary Neville standing for Parliament at the next election, I am sure he would have received many votes for what he was saying in the House this week.

  • Thierry Henry was a brilliant footballer.

Arsene Wenger said he was the best player he ever signed in his 22-year career.

Henry had a choice of which TV panel to join and Sky finished up paying him apparently £4m a year for four years.

But he has now decided to come away from that and is ready to go into the Premier League as a manager.

Whilst I totally admired him on the pitch, and thought he was a bit overpaid on the TV, I think the fact he was part of the back-up team for Belgium in the World Cup does not necessarily qualify him to walk into a top job.

Bear in mind that last season 16 Premier League managers lost their jobs, I think I would be happier to see him take a role in the lower divisions and work his way up.