I SHARED every ounce of Ryan Giggs’ embarrassment on Sunday night.

“I’m shocked,” said the Manchester United legend as he struggled for words when he picked up the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, “. . . as you can tell by the speech I have prepared.”

The poor man was almost apologetic.

He genuinely did not expect to win, nor did the bookies who had Jenson Button as favourite.

But what so many forecasters ignored was the power of the public vote and, significantly, the Manchester United factor.

Once Giggs’s name was among the nominees, the fan base of the most popular football club in Britain, if not the world, clicked into gear, and Formula One champion Button, newly-crowned world heavyweight champion David Haye and Ashes-winning captain Andrew Strauss didn’t stand a chance.

These are the kind of results you get when you put such awards into the hands of armchair fans and not a hand-picked panel of judges.

For a brief moment I was reminded of John Sergeant — he of the two stomping left feet and the grace of a constipated hippopotamus — going on for round after round of last year’s Strictly Come Dancing series. Not because of the quality of his dancing — that was a joke — but, as chief judge Len Goodman reminded us, it had become a popularity contest not a dance competition.

I shudder to think where X-factor duo Jedward would have finished if their name had mistakenly slipped into the nominations for the sports personality awards.

Thankfully, on this occasion the public got it right — and for all the right reasons.

For me and countless other admirers Giggs has been one of the greatest, most successful footballers of the Premiership era. He is a supremely skilful, enduring, amazingly consistent professional who is dedicated to his sport and unswervingly loyal to his club and his manager — both of whom he paid tribute to when he eventually composed himself in the Sheffield spotlight.

He is a true sporting hero, a role model for any aspiring young footballer and he deserves every accolade that comes his way. Yet some churlish critics have queried why he should be Sports Personality of this year in particular.

But the power of the people should never be underestimated. And they recognised that this was the year Giggs added an 11th Premier League title to a collection of honours that make him the most decorated player in the history of English football.

It’s just a pity such a fine sportsman winning such a prestigious trophy should be made to feel quite as uncomfortable as Giggs clearly was. Because he knew, from the second his name was announced, there would be some who would try to take the gloss off his big moment.

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I DON’T envy those who will be charged with deciding who, if anyone, should be brought to book in the Dean Ashton affair.

The West Ham striker is considering launching a ground-breaking legal action against his former England team-mate Shaun Wright-Phillips after being forced to announce his retirement.

Ashton suffered a broken ankle in a challenge by Wright-Phillips, who was then a Chelsea player, during an England training session in August 2006 and has never fully recovered.

He is also understood to be considering suing Chelsea while West Ham are seeking £7million compensation from the Football Association, which covers the amount Ashton was insured for and equates to the fee they paid Norwich eight months before the striker suffered the injury that ultimately ended his career.

If the various actions are pursued, the whole unfortunate business promises to get very messy indeed.

I wish Ashton well in his pursuit of compensation. He is still only 26 when all’s said and done and was, at the time, one of the country’s most powerful and prolific strikers. He had risen from humble beginnings at Crewe to become a formidable top-flight performer and had many lucrative seasons to look forward to.

But the danger is that Wright-Phillips is blamed for ending the career of not only a fellow professional but an England team-mate.

And that would be a grave injustice because the Manchester City winger does not appear to have a vindictive bone in his body.

No wonder PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor is hoping the question of compensation is sorted to everyone’s satisfaction without the need for player-v-player litigation.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that because nobody would think that Shaun Wright-Phillips was a malicious player at all,” Taylor said.

Let’s hope Ashton’s advisers take on board the words of the players’ union chief.

Ashton, who is expected to pick up a £3m pay-off from West Ham and will receive considerable support from the PFA, would win a lot of friends if he left Wright-Phillips alone and switched his focus from the personal to the collective target of the FA.

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FROM a media perspective, Gordon Strachan can be a cantankerous so-and-so.

He does not enjoy dealing with the press and there are examples galore of his lack of tolerance.

He can be snappy and sarcastic, but he is a straight, serious, deep-thinking man, not prone to trivialisation.

So I wasn’t surprised by the reaction of the recently appointed Middlesbrough manager when it was suggested he might draw on the plight of the 1,700 Teessiders reeling from the proposed closure of the Corus steelworks at Redcar to motivate his under-achieving footballers.

“I would not use it as a cheap trick to use their depression and fear to try to motivate my players,” Strachan said. “It’s real fear and depression. If you need that as motivation there’s something wrong with you.”

And, as for trying to woo disillusioned Boro fans back to the Riverside, he is intelligent enough to understand the situation in the North East for what it is. Contrary to what the legendary Bill Shankly once humorously suggested, life is far more serious than football.

“Would you come to a game if you have to save up for a half-decent Christmas for your family?” Strachan retorted.

These are some of the most sensible utterings of a football manager I’ve ever come across.

More of the same please, Gordon.