As I said earlier this week, I was honoured to be invited to the Hamilton Soccer Hall of Fame last weekend which is the biggest event of its nature in Canada. It was absolutely tremendous. Some of the biggest names in Canadian Soccer were there as well as the Canadian and Hamilton Soccer Associations, it was a sold out crowd of around 500. It was arranged by John Gibson and Vince Miciele who put it together with a fabulous back room team including volunteers – they made it work together absolutely fantastic and put on a great event. You can have a look and learn more about the Hall of Fame here.

I was taken up to Hamilton and the event was held in a Masonic hall – I did a short piece for the local television station up there about Canadian soccer, too. Anyone who’s followed my career knows I had a spell up in Canada as a player and my long association with the North American games means I’m just about as familiar with Canadian players as I am with those in the English game! I must say the whole event brought back some great memories, I met friends like Jimmy Sinclair who I was very close with when I played up there. It was amazing to see some I’d played with or knew about twenty or thirty years ago who had gone on to play at a good level and now had families of their own, many of who had settled down in Hamilton.

There were plenty of Irish and Scots there, players who had made similar journeys across the ocean to me and so it was very special to me to have some time with them. I was showed incredible hospitality which was very humbling and I wanted to take a moment of my time on my website to really thank Vince, John and everyone who organised and attended the event. I was reminded – not that I’d forgotten! – about just how passionate the Canadian people are about the game, they really, really are. They are about all sports, of course, and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until they manage to establish a strong domestic league of their own. It hasn’t been thriving but it exists and has carried on – Canada holds a lot of fantastic memories for my wife Claire and I as it was the first place we moved to after my playing career at QPR ended – if it wasn’t for the extortionate tax, we might not have left for a long time!

I’ve got to thank John McGrane who I played with at Montreal, we became very good friends. John is actually good friends and business partner to John Gibson, who I mentioned above, it was John (McGrane) who was manager at Hamilton in the Canadian Soccer League who introduced me to John Gibson and I was recommended for the manager’s job by him (McGrane, again!) at Nova Scotia Clippers, a brand new franchise, and my first steps into management. I’m now on Twitter (I absolutely love talking to my followers on there, and connecting with people who I used to know, it brings back some great memories) and I was asked a couple of times recently about whether I would be interested in management now. I’ve taken all the necessary badges and qualifications so that isn’t an issue – the reason I’ve not gone for more jobs over the last few years is simply because I have been so passionate about what I’ve been doing over in the States, developing young players and trying to establish a real culture of excellence in the sport that will help the game from grass roots level, that I’ve just not gone back in for it. If the right opportunity came up I would certainly be interested and that could be anywhere in the world!

On the same theme, I was asked if I might end up at Old Trafford after Sir Alex goes – I don’t see it, as much as I love the club! It was good to see United take another step closer to the title with a point at West Ham in a hard fought game. I understand there was some criticism of the boys for their performance on Wednesday but you have got to realise that every single club that plays against Manchester United is playing a Cup Final and gives it that extra bit of effort; nowhere is that truer than against West Ham, who have put the spanner in the works of a couple of title attempts in years gone by. It’s not a case of United not doing enough – imagine the motivation of a team that can stop Manchester United from winning the title. They need two wins now in the last few games, and naturally there will be some looking at the collapse of last year and panicking. It’s not over until the fat lady sings of course but these last few games will show us if the team have learned from that experience from last year.