Fair play to David Beckham. Not wanting to upstage his former mentor, he waited until we had all given Ferguson our praise and well-wishes before he announced that he too would be retiring at the end of the season. Obviously, Beckham still has the chance (should he wish to) to become a manager or a coach, whilst Ferguson is distancing himself away from the game-day atmosphere. Nonetheless, this season has seen a startling number of people within the game retiring from their roles, whatever they may be.

And for people of a younger generation, like myself, this is the first time we will have witnessed such a shock exodus of our idols from the game. Since the start of this season, way back in August, Roberto Carlos and Andriy Shevchenko called time on their playing careers, with Shevchenko distancing himself from football to join a pro-business political party.

But it was not just the foreign, exotically named players, for whom we coveted their sticker for our Panini album, who have left the game this year. Of course, Jamie Carragher will retire from Liverpool at the end of the season, and Michael Owen, boyhood hero of many, will also not be seen in a football shirt again. 

Add into the mix Paul Scholes and Beckham, and the number of Golden Generation England players who left us enthralled and disappointed in equal measure has suddenly become noticably smaller. Taking into account the fact that Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, and Steven Gerrard do not have many years left of playing time, the day is drawing ever nearer when the old will have to be discarded in favour of the new. 

And that is an interesting prospect for people of my age. Being born in the 90s and growing up in the early 00s, we have never seen a wholsesale 'changing of the guard' in relation to England. From the players who we adored in the white of England, we will now be running the rule over a new set of Lions, who we will hope can improve on the failures of their predecessors. 

The future, in my opinion, does look bright. Daniel Sturridge's performances for Liverpool this season have been extremely promising, whilst the prospects of Raheem Sterling, Wilfried Zaha, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain hopefully point towards a future where England do not have to play a central-midfielder (or Stewart Downing) on the left.

In addition, if Phil Jones and Chris Smalling can form a formidable partnership at Manchester United, we could be looking at a very young and talented (and familiar) England team in the future.

The White Knights of our past may be in the twlight of their careers, or have succumbed to age already. But I see enough around us in English football to be quietly optimistic. 

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