DEAR reader, the start of this week’s scribbles are being clattered out today, Wednesday, September 21, 2016, as I sit this very second witnessing a matter of great national importance. Think Bannockburn, think Colloden, think the day Mr Tunnock first decided he really wanted a cake to go with his tea.

As I type there is a man galloping up and down in front of me, at times only just a couple of feet away. His face is one that is recognised world over and his name is one referenced to in practically every household in the country. Every now and then it is prefixed by the odd expletive.

Here though, there is a smile creeping across the normally-stern fizzog of the man responsible for bringing the thousands inside this cauldron of noise, passion and, more than anything else, love and adulation together as one.

On the banks of the River Clyde more than 8,000, many of whom boasting t-shirts, hats, flags and banners bearing the name of the man in question, scurried out of the torrential Glasgow rain like drookit tennis disciples and into the grand setting of the SSE Hydro, impatiently waiting for another chance to worship their tennis messiah at Andy Murray Live.

The reason for Murray’s popularity is as much founded in his humility as it is his ability to hit a baseline from a two-handed backhand lob with all the veracity of an SAS sniper spearing an apple from 100 yards away. This has been abundantly evident during a landmark year for the World No.2 and national hero as his career gets set to turn the page on to a new chapter.

Last weekend Murray, along with brother Jamie, Dan Evans, Kyle Edmund and captain Leon smith, sold out Glasgow’s Emirates Arena for the third time in two years for the Davis Cup rolling into town. Such an event offers us Scottish hacks an opportunity to get up close and personal with someone I normally just have the privilege of shouting at from the comfort of behind my own futon.

On the Wednesday running up to the semi-final tie, the 29-year-old fielded questions from the world’s press between practice sessions, every answer as measured as the previous one as he spoke of tactics, draw preferences and even the sensitive subject of his grandfather’s funeral just two days away.

After the lights had been turned off and the cameras had stopped rolling, Murray then went over to chat informally to a young fan in a wheelchair who sat in awe at the back of the room with her family, spending around 20 minutes of his own time instead asking questions rather than answer them before posing for pictures and signing autographs. Worth noting he was soon joined by his brother Jamie.

With this in mind, if the Scot was ever in any doubt, surely events over the last few weeks have hammered home the message to him of how he is adored in his homeland (across the UK but particularly in Scotland).

It is not in the humble and often private man’s modest nature to believe his own hype. Hell, anyone who has watched him for more than three points will see he is by far his harshest critic. But, with all due respect to his Davis Cup team-mates, Murray was the reason Glasgow once again flocked to see the boy from Dunblane that, along with his US Open-winning sibling, is quickly turning tennis into Scotland’s national sport.

His appeal was underlined by the charity event at The Hydro, the venue for the start of this week’s witterings. What other sportsperson in the UK, whether it footballer or tiddlywinks champion, could have such a pull on an individual basis to fill such a venue for an exhibition match? I’d argue there isn’t one.

Given all of this, Murray now faces a monumental decision. For so long he has been the man to help carry his nation from the international doldrums all the way to the Davis Cup last year. With the draw for next year’s tournament plucking the Brits with a tricky away tie to Canada at the start of February, questions will start to be asked of how much longer one of the finest singles stars ever to grace a tennis court will continue to be a team player.

At the start of the football season we saw Scott Brown, the Celtic captain, decide for the sake of his own career to retire from international duty. At the age of 29, the same thought has no doubt shot through Murray’s head.

The British No.1 has many years left in him but, after hobbling out of the Emirates Arena on Sunday with a shattered body, the impact of going deep into the Davis Cup will surely have an impact on a player yearning to be the best in the world, as well as rack up even more Grand Slam titles. Now is the time to put himself first.

One thing is sure, though. No matter if Murray walks on to a tennis court in Canada or not, his legacy will not be impacted. Tens of thousands of those disciples will still come from far and wide to catch a glimpse of him.

Including this one.