Like most people, particularly Saints supporters who may have only had the chance to visit the place in the last couple of weeks, I was surprised to see that Wembley was for sale.

I have never thought that that sort of thing would be possible.

I can understand two supermarkets merging as they have this week, but Wembley, to me, is like Buckingham Palace, the House of Commons or Westminster Abbey.

So where does it put the situation when it comes to football?

Players from all around the world have always wanted to play there.

I often quote people like Ivan Golac who couldn’t believe when we qualified for the 1979 League Cup final that he was going to walk out onto the sacred turf.

Since then it has been a little bit downgraded from an English point of view because semi-finals are held there now and Tottenham are using it as a home ground until the works at White Hart Lane are completed.

One of the reasons given for the sale is that it will bring in a vast amount of money which can then be used to help lower levels of the game.

I’m not sure how many people know but there is a part of the sport called the Football Foundation.

For a few years now I have bene one of their ambassadors having been asked to turn up at various venues which the Foundation have put money into to improve.

For instance, I went to Winchester where their sports area had been updated with one of the new 3G pitches.

To look at it seems like any normal football pitch but it is a mixture of grass and astroturf. It’s a huge advancement to the old astroturf which came in many years ago.

In addition, they paid for floodlights which means it doesn’t just benefit the school children during the day but people in the local area who could use it in the evenings.

Each month I get sent an email bringing me up to date with what the Foundation are doing around the country.

Looking at the last one I received a week ago there is a list of ten various projects from Lancashire, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester, East Riding, Gloucester and Sheffield.

The projects vary from putting in the sort of pitch we talked about, which in one place cost nearly £550,000, down to a stadium upgrade for £16,500. In another area they helped to change the pavilion and so on.

In total there was about £4m spent, and that was only in one month.

The point I am making is that selling Wembley will not suddenly start to benefit lower down the ladder because the Foundation have been doing this for a long time now.

I think Wembley should be retained.

The semi-finals could be put back to where they used to be – ours, for instance, was held at Stamford Bridge because there two southern teams involved. The other semi-final that year was at Hillsborough.

There are enough stadiums around the country now which hold a lot of people, like Old Trafford with 75,000 and others maybe 60,000, which would still give that wonderful experience to supporters.

The memories for most supporters of going to Wembley were special because when you think there were only three league clubs each year that played there – two in the Cup final with the winner back there to play in the Charity Shield.

Then the League Cup started which meant possibly another two teams.

It’s that which made Wembley so extra special and I personally think that should be cherished.

Money is important, obviously, but there is enough coming in from the television deals and as I have pointed out the stadium is being well used around all levels of the game.

I for one would not like to see so many other sports using Wembley, for instance American Football, which has had games and potentially could have more.

Call me old fashioned if you want, but let’s keep the magic for the young supporters now and in the future.