FOOTBALL, of course, is probably the biggest sport of all in this country because the seasons go on and on for so long, with so much attention.

But there are other top-class world games which also hit the headlines. Tennis being one of them in respect to England.

You will be able to look up results and see how players have done, if they are playing abroad somewhere.

But it becomes more front-page over here when the Wimbledon games take place – which are every summer. The whole world of tennis is looking out for it.

One of the biggest headlines this week was that Roger Federer, a 20-time grand-slam champion who has been at the top end of the world game for many years, announced he was retiring.

I suppose in future he will still be seen at Wimbledon, potentially sitting up with the commentators if he wants to.

He is 41 now and apparently has had some injury problems with his knee. The one thing top-class tennis players need is mobility.

Unless you have seen it live on the day, you would not believe how much movement there is and how hard a tennis ball is hit by the top players.

Although the courts are much smaller than a football pitch, when there is only you at one end a player has to be ready to sprint in all directions, jump as high as possible, be prepared to smash, lob etcetera. This takes loads of time to practice and perfect.

Federer has been so popular with the crowds throughout his career and it will be interesting to see what he continues to do afterwards.

He will always be made welcome at the big arenas around the world and will probably enjoy sitting with his feet up for a while, rather than sprinting around!

In football, England were of course set to face Italy in the Nations League last night.

With the World Cup not too far ahead, it will continue the build-up to the big one in Qatar later this year.

Our interest from a Saints perspective is James Ward-Prowse, who I of course call the set-piece man.

The squad is quite big this time around and I just hope he is in contention. I would love to see him in the top 11, starting off on the pitch.

But I certainly hope he will at least be one of the subs to make an impact in Qatar.

As I’ve always said, he is perfect to deliver set-pieces and would certainly be in my top squad.

Let’s hope he is and he helps England to keep going into the latter stages of the tournament.

Naturally, I am always interested to read about problems or successes with various other managers.

I understand betting is a big part of the game these days more than ever.

For some reason, Saints manager Ralph Hasenhuttl was at one stage 16/1 with most bookmakers to be the next Premier League manager to leave his job. In the space of a few hours on Wednesday, this was slashed to 9/4 - I have no idea why.

Knowing the effect it would have on Ralph, if he’s even heard about it, it would be to make him think ‘I’ll show you’ and make him even more determined to get the right results for his team. Good luck to him.

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