I guess the answer to that from my point of view is that if you dont know a person then it is rather difficult to form an accurate opinion about a person, and in this case that seems to be bourne out by comments in the media from people who actually know him

Ear, Ear, the lads done good.

Quite correct, Paul Scholes has been the best England player for many years as well as the best thing to come out of Old Trafford. Because he keeps his head down and gets on with family life the stupid media have little interest. Look how they fawn over Rooney and his stupid wife and Beckham in the early days (although he has done a lot recently to redeem himself) and God forbid Lampard and John Terry and their never ending off pitch nonsense.

Exactly. It's always going to be subjective. You can only form an opinion based on what you see, hear and read. It may well and often does change when you meet the person in the flesh.

I totally agree with you .... thats why I am saying that I am surprised that so many people have such a bad opinion of him, knowing so little about him.

I read a few articles about Fred Perry in the run-up to this year's Wimbledon, and it's quite ironic really that he was disliked by the tennis "establishment" as they didn't consider him to be a gentleman, and he was also seen as arrogant.

Maybe the UK would do better to stick with the oiks on the basis of their record of achievement, as the chinless wonders we've had in the intervening 76 years don't seem to have done terribly well, do they?

As far as the general public who cast the votes, are concerned they can only judge from what they see in the media and mainly on the TV.

On such occasions he appears to have about as much personality as a dead sheep to those who are even able to endure his cringeworthy interviews, so even if he is the bundle of fun some claim him to be away from the public eye,it's understandable that Joe Public finds it very difficult to swallow.

After so many years of practice,I would have thought by now he'd learn to lighten up a bit,crack the odd joke or even manage a smile of sorts, but no he never even seems to make the effort.

Unfortunately the worst is yet to come after he retires and the BBC or ITV begin to regularly wheel him out as a Tennis pundit to match the cringeworthy performances of Steve Boring Davis and Steven Hendry in the world of Snooker.

He might have more credibility as a tennis pundit than Tim Henman does, though. Every time I hear him saying that a player either should be doing, or have done, something different I just think "well, what would you know about it, you never won a thing you useless prat!". Same goes for Andrew Castle. They do have the requisite tailor's dummy looks, I suppose.

It would seem that many of Murray's critics still resent a bit of light-hearted banter about 'anyone but England'. Ironically, they also accuse him of having no sense of humour. Ho hum.

His comments about the English were said very early in his career, and he has admitted that he greatly regrets ever saying it, He also has to face the most stupid questions immediately after matches. Steve Davis was the same, being asked after a 30+ frame world snooker final, 'do you think potting the pink in the 4th frame was really the turning point' He didn't even answer, but years later when asked as similarly stupid question he did reply, 'well I think the potting of the brown in frame 3 was really the turning point'.
I really suspect that the win at the Olympics, where he beat both Federer and Djokovic has been the turning point, and I suspect that this was the first
of many.

They do.

I'm all for a bit of banter, the problem with Murrays delivery of the immortal line was that it was said without the hint of a smile and not with any sense of irony. That though as we have learnt is the lads on screen persona.

Another Scot last night on the TV during an experiment with acid dipped a coin into a glass of acid and remarked about whether we should be dipping the Queens head into acid and said "well she's not the Queen of Scotland" so it's no wonder that some Brits are getting a bit fed up with the banter.

I have to agree with this, I am glad he won, but he looks as though he has stood in dog sh7t all the time, he's a multi millionaire, got a beautiful girlfriend and owns two ex council semi detached houses in Aberdeen, what more could he want?

Have you ever seen Bernie Ecclestone look happy?

I hear he is a hoot and really funny amongst his friends though.

Well of course, that will be what attracted them to become friends with the billionaire Bernie Ecclestone in the first place.