TOP-CLASS WINGER IS A JOY TO WATCH...

WHEN I go to watch a football match, I want to see players doing things that take my breath away. Skill. Tricks. Beating men.

At the top level, though, I just don’t think it’s as much of an entertainment industry as it was in my day.

When I played, you had proper wingers. A wing-back now and then. Gradually, though, it’s progressed to a point where everybody plays some variant on 4-3-3.

Now, the 7 and 11 are floating players. When you get it right - like Mo Salah and Sadio Mane at Liverpool - it can lead to a lot of goals.

What you don’t see is old-fashioned wing play. Taking players on, showing a bit of trickery, getting to the byline.

I played against people like Andrei Kanchelskis, Franz Carr, Mark Overmars, Anders Limpar and David Ginola - proper wingers with great feet and tremendous pace. Even someone like Wilfried Zaha, as skilful as he is, can lack that sort of directness.

I also think a lot of players just use the 4-3-3 as an excuse to slack off and concentrate purely on the attacking side.

In a 4-4-2, you had to defend, keep your shape. Then you got forward, got your crosses off. We weren’t just thinking of scoring. We were team players, happy to graft. Too many players now are like ‘I’ve done a couple of runs, that’ll do me thanks’.

That’s why I’m desperate for lads like Harvey Barnes at Leicester and Dan James at Man United to retain their identity. Because they are throwbacks. Two-footed, quick, hard-working, able to take people on inside or outside. They set things alight, and I love that.