Daily Echo:

As I have said many times I am not really into horse racing, and certainly not the betting world having been taken to the races one day by my good, old team, and coming out at the end of the day having backed more winners than the rest of them put together.

It didn’t please them, particularly Mick Channon who was supposed to be an expert and is now one of the top racehorse trainers in the country.

Like most people I enjoy watching events like this week at Royal Ascot, not I hasten to add to admire the ladies in their strange hats, although it was amusing with the hot weather realising how uncomfortable most of the men were in top hats, tails and waistcoats.

One afternoon the panel called in a guest who was instantly recognisable and acknowledged by the racing people as being a legend. It was Ryan Giggs.

I had a good chat with him a few years ago at one of the end of season dinners in London when he spoke about his ambitions after his playing career to go into management.

He has been linked recently with wanting the Saints job, but apparently, so the papers said, was dismissed because of his lack of experience.

When asked about this sort of thing at Ascot he said he was just enjoying life after football and he had been linked with jobs all over the place he knew nothing about. That probably means his agent, or people as they are now often called, are pushing his name around.

If I was to have another chat with him my advice would be that if he wants to go in his reputation is such that supporters would like to see him around their club, but do not aim too high.

The fact he was a top class international footballer does not mean he can walk into a Premier League job and succeed.

Horse wise he said he backed the winner of the first race after ringing his boss, as he still calls him, Sir Alex Ferguson, who gave him that tip and another one for each of the remaining races that day.

I would certainly advise him to ring Sir Alex again, who I am sure would stop him getting connected to jobs like the one at Saints, and my suggestion would be to go in for the one at Oxford United.

Sir Alex, like myself, Brian Clough, Bobby Robson etc, all cut our teeth at the lower levels first. You are not always successful, but you learn to live with the triumphs and disasters as a certain Mr Rudyard Kipling wrote in his poem ‘If.’ After some time you will know yourself whether you are ready for the next step up.

I would like to see people like Ryan Giggs still involved in the game. With so much experience and so much respect given to him I will certainly look to see how his career goes forward.

Many many years ago I was asked to manage a Football League team to go to Naples to play against an Italian league team in a one-off game.

I was lucky I could pick players from different top clubs, and as I remember three or four of them were from Liverpool who were flying high at the time.

I believe one of them was John Aldridge and I often wonder what happens to players, where they are and what they are doing long after their careers are finished.

I hadn’t heard his name for many years, but it cropped up again this week where he was quoted as giving advice to our top player Virgil van Dijk.

He advised him to go on strike to persuade his club to allow him to go to Liverpool.

He might have been a pretty good player, but I don’t think he would pass many exams if he wished to go into education now after making such a ridiculous statement.

Liverpool have already had to put their hands up, apologise, and say they were no longer interested.

If John had said in the Liverpool dressing room he was going on strike I wonder what the reaction of the other players, never mind the board and the supporters would have been.

John should either move off back to Naples or keep quiet and do whatever it is he is doing now.