Precisely where we stand in the matter of heroes is less apparent.If Davies had come a little further forward in time he could have found other candidates Ian Botham was a natural hero of cricket. Most of those present had never seen the Welshman play, not even on television, but they knew a hero when they saw one. Stirling Moss failed to win the drivers’ world championship but he remains unquestionably a hero of motor racing.Last year I attended a dinner at which Charles was given a lifetime award for his great feats in football. “From that moment Bannister was, and still is, one of my sporting heroes.”The fact that Bannister did not win an Olympic gold medal is irrelevant. Henry Cooper didn’t make it to world class, his only attempt at the heavyweight championship ending in bloody defeat by Muhammad Ali in 1966, but the years since then have not diminished his popularity. Claus Thomsen, the club’s Danish midfielder, though, is to leave Goodison for AB Copenhagen for a fee of pounds 500,000.The Crystal Palace forward Attilio Lombardo is set to return to first- team action next week against Chelsea. He tore a thigh muscle while training with the Italian squad in November and his comeback in December ended after 48 minutes when he was injured again..

I have said all along that, if they are not happy with me, then I won’t be there.”Lou Macari, tipped to become Spackman’s successor, yesterday said he has had no contact with the Blades over their vacancy, but that he would jump at the chance of doing the job. It has as much, maybe more, to do with presence as achievement, a matter of people confronting fame and time and themselves.A friend, Tom Cushman, who writes sensitive sports columns for the San Diego Union-Tribune recalls the thrill he felt as a college freshman track athlete when hearing of Bannister’s four-minute mile “It was unbelievable,” he said. Davies’s personal choices, all qualify as sporting heroes.I’m certain, anyway, that the status ought not to awarded lightly. ONE of the occupational hazards of a veteran sportswriter is the scorn that historical perspective raises in an advancing generation.

Things may be better than they were, maybe not, but how many sports performers today will be remembered as genuine heroes?

Beginning last night, Sky Sports 3 is broadcasting a series of 20 interviews with great figures from Britain’s sporting past conducted by the old ITV hand Dickie Davies, who was big on the box when some of today’s star presenters were in nappies.
First up was the 1980 Olympic 800 metres gold medallist, Steve Ovett, to be followed by his great middle-distance rival, Sebastian Coe, and such notables as John Charles, Tom Finney, Colin Cowdrey, Mary Peters, Stirling Moss, Willie Carson, Roger Bannister, Gareth Edwards and Henry Cooper. The 30-year-old left-back, a pounds 700,000 signing from Leicester City earlier this season, was carried off during a game at Barnsley on 3 January.Everton’s veteran defender Dave Watson is poised to sign a new one-year contract with the club. The Blades are due to announce their new manager today.The Bolton Wanderers defender Mike Whitlow has been ruled out for the rest of the season with knee ligament damage. The former Birmingham, Celtic and Stoke manager has been out of work since July last year after leaving Stoke.”Obviously I am flattered that my name has been mentioned and I would love the chance to get back into management,” Macari said. “I have always said that, on the football side, once the fans don’t want me, I will go.