A LOT of drivel is spouted about football, you might argue much of it in this column, but the reaction to Sir Alex Ferguson's new 'explosive' autobiography has really taken the cake.

Led by cheerleader and BBC pundit Robbie Savage, Ferguson has been slaughtered for daring to offer a few opinions in a tome predictably released after his retirement from management.

Savage, a man now making a living out of offering opinions and judgements on Premier League football, who is paid to be critical of thing he observes, is unhappy with Ferguson.

Very unhappy. In his column in a national newspaper (yep), Savage is absolutely scathing of Ferguson, branding him 'bang out of order' for criticising the likes of David Beckham, Roy Keane and Liverpool's Steven Gerrard.

What planet are we living on?

The rank hypocrisy over Ferguson and Harry Redknapp's recently released autobiography, shouldn't be lost.

We spend our entire season bemoaning that footballers and managers don't open up, talk in clichés and seem to care little about us, the paying public.

Yet when Ferguson - admittedly with eyes on swelling his bank account – breaks those conventions, it's a cause for condemnation?

Who cares if Ferguson thinks Gerrard is only a top player, not a top, top player?

Savage does, apparently, because it's nonsense. Well in Savage's view it is nonsense. Mine as well as it goes.

But not to Ferguson. And it's his book. Not Robbie's and not mine.

As for Beckham and Keane, one suspects they'll cope.

Keane, again, currently earning a living by being a pundit, isn't exactly one for fence sitting. His criticisms on ITV are at times jaw-dropping, his manner often aggressive to the point of making it uncomfortable to watch, but he provides compelling spectacle at all times.

He's also used the media to air his dirty laundry a myriad of times. Do you honestly think he's bothered?

As for Beckham, his exit from Manchester United is clearly a newsworthy topic to be covered by Ferguson, even today.

Beckham has got more from football than any other figure in history in terms of the riches on offer and good luck to him. But it doesn't change the fact his departure from Manchester United was contentious and because of a personality clash with Ferguson.

To not cover that in an autobiography? That really would be bang out of order. I'll take a little salacious talk to sell a few books over broad banalities any day of the week.