Best Player: In terms of the Premiership, it’s a three-way tie between Thierry Henry, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Alan Shearer who’ve all consistently been their club’s best performers. Best player in the world has to be Zidane. I’ve spoken to a few of the French lads about him and they all say he’s outstanding – not only in terms of ability but his commitment to the team. There’s been talk of him coming here for a season or two, but in an interview with a French newspaper recently he said the Premiership’s not for him because of the pace. To be honest, any club after Real Madrid would be a step down.

Best Young Player: Six months ago I’d have said Wayne Rooney, but I was at Everton v Manchester City last week and he was disappointing. Ditto John O’Shea at Man U, although you’ve got to remember that they’re still young lads learning their trade. The one who caught my eye last season at West Ham and who has continued to impress with Chelsea is Glen Johnson.

Best Ireland Player: Damien Duff wins that hands down. He may have thought at the time that £17 million was too expensive, but Alex Ferguson will realise now that not bidding for him was a mistake that could cost United the championship. For the national team, you pretty much know going into every game that Damien will be ‘Man of the Match’. Ability, great temperament…he’s going to be one of the all time Ireland greats.

Best Goal: Damien’s a candidate again with that marvelous individual effort against Canada, but my personal favourite was the other week when Dalmat lashed that one in for Spurs against Wolves. The technique involved was exceptional.

Best Manager: For coming fourth last season and spending Abranovich’s money so wisely, Claudio Ranieri. On top of everything else, he’s had to contend with all the talk of him keeping the seat warm until Sven’s ready to take-over. If he does get the bullet, it’ll be the most unwarranted sacking in the history of the Premiership.

Biggest Story of the Year: In the UK it’s the goings-on at Stamford Bridge, and in Ireland Brian Kerr’s first full year in charge of the national side. Which was dominated early on by Roy Keane and whether or not he’d return to the fold. It looked to be a done deal, but then Fergie stuck his oar in and Roy put Ireland on the back burner. I don’t think he did himself any favours by taking a swipe at everybody – myself included – on the Eamon Dunphy TV show.
The “Believe Tony Cascarino and you’ll believe anything” jibe was in response to me saying I thought he was lying when he outlined his reasons for leaving the World Cup. He basically didn’t want to be there – something he admitted when he said in an article that international football was a bit of a nuisance for him.
Dunphy obviously encouraged him with his brown-nosing, but Roy should have realised how embarrassingly one-sided it looked. “You’re the great Roy Keane, the best player ever to come out of Ireland”…it’s all a bit euuuuuurgh!

Best Game: Portsmouth beating Leeds 6-1. Pompey are favourites with a lot of people to go down, but the fight they showed that day at Fratton Park was tremendous.

Best Supporters: I remember West Brom getting beat 6-0 somewhere and the fans singing, “There’s only one Gary Megson!” On their way back to the Nationwide or not, they were fully behind the team.