My colleague Alan Hubbard was among those to enter the fray last week, arguing eloquently that in his view Farah did not deserve such an accolade principally because he had not made the all-round sporting contribution that some others had achieved.

I agree with Alan’s wider conclusion, although my reasoning would be focused more directly on his sporting feats.

There is no doubt that Farah deserves a mention in any shortlist of sporting greats. His collection of double gold at the 2013 and 2015 Worlds, as well as two titles at the 2010 and 2014 Europeans and the 2012 London Olympics, not to mention gold and silver at the 2011 Worlds, is virtually unmatched in British sport. He is one of the greatest tacticians athletics has ever seen, with a range that deems him world-class in every distance from 1500 metres to the marathon.

One of the things that really impresses me about Farah is his ability to learn from his mistakes.

In 2008 he over-trained ahead of the Beijing Olympics, and promptly crashed out in the heats. He has peaked impeccably for every subsequent major championship. Three years later, however, he sprinted too early in the world 10,000m final and was out-kicked in the home straight by Ethiopian Ibrahim Jeilan. He has never gone too early since.

But for me, his lack of a world record holds him back, and separates him from other recent greats-of-the-track like Jeilan’s compatriots Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele. For all Farah’s domination and British Records, arguably his only truly world-class time is his 3:28.81 for 1500m in 2013, an event he only does on a part-time basis.

That time puts him ninth on the all-time outdoor world lists, while his 5,000m best of 12:53.11 puts him just 31st and his 26:46.57 for 10,000 16th. And this despite all the improvements in funding and training he has enjoyed over those in previous eras.

Both those latter times were also run in 2011, meaning that for the subsequent four seasons he has prioritised championship performances over fast runs earlier or later in the season. I am not saying this is wrong, far from it, but to join the very best he has to run quicker.

I am intrigued as to how much faster he could run and whether he would be capable of breaking Kenenisa Bekele’s world records. My instinct is he could get close, and would probably now out-kick Bekele in his prime on a final lap, but would not quite be capable of running so quickly.

This comparison brings me on to my second point. Farah is not the greatest because, in his four seasons of hegemony since being beaten by Jeilan, he has never once taken on a truly great runner in great form. Okay, in Beijing he did have two tough tussles. A fast 10,000m race when the Kenyans teamed up to tire him early, before a last-lap burn-up with another Kenyan in 3:29 metric miler Caleb Ndiku over the shorter distance.

But, I am talking about a challenge like that faced by women’s 5,000m favourite Genzebe Dibaba in Beijing. Dibaba, the world champion and world record holder over 1500m, was beaten by compatriot Almaz Ayana after the Ethiopian started throwing in 64-second laps with two kilometres to go. She closed with a 4:24 mile - well up on world record pace for the second half of the race - for a blistering 14:26.83 as Dibaba cracked.

If someone managed to do something similar in a men’s race and started running sub-60 second laps after 7km of a 10,000m, like Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese did in an unsuccessful attempt to beat Bekele in 2009, would Farah break? I feel he might.

Here I’ve brought up a whole new can of worms. Some would say Farah or any other sportsman should only be judged against the standards of his day; he can only beat those who line-up against him after all.

But others would say that for someone to be considered the greatest of all time, this context is important.

Is someone like heavyweight judoka Teddy Riner, the seven-time world and two-time Olympic champion who last lost five years ago, therefore one of the greatest athletes of all time simply because of his record?

He is certainly among the most dominant, but most of the names which enter my head are those who have been involved in a great rivalry, with either one person or a series of opponents.

Many have cited Muhammad Ali, who overcame a heavily-favoured rival time and time again. In my sporting lifetime, the two obvious examples are Usain Bolt, whose treble-victory over Justin Gatlin in Beijing was the latest instance of him raising his level to brilliantly see off a rival, and swimmer Michael Phelps, who has won countless contests which have come down to the final stroke.

Another would be Roger Federer, who in the first five-year-or-so of his tennis dominance did not have a rival in the same class, almost always having enough to overcome the likes of Andy Roddick of Lleyton Hewitt. But in the last seven years, he has had at least two such rivals in Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, and the fact he is still up-there among the favourites for the ongoing US Open is a testament to his enduring greatness.

So to return to the question of greatest British sportsman, who is there who fulfils this criteria?  Alan Hubbard plumped for Sebastian Coe for his all-round contribution, while in The Times this morning, Matthew Syed put forward the case for World Cup winning footballer Bobby Charlton.

I can’t really comment on either of these, but in the more recent past, rower Sir Steve Redgrave, rugby player Jonny Wilkinson would be up there along with any number of cyclists: Sir Chris Hoy, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome,

But if I had to pick one, one choice who has become clearer to me as I write is sailor Sir Ben Ainslie.

After being agonisingly pipped for gold by Brazilian Robert Scheidt as a teenager in Atlanta, Sir Ben won four successive Olympic titles, effectively changing the sport with his revolutionary tactics in Sydney, pinning his Brazilian opponent at the back of the fleet when needing to finish 10-places ahead to claim overall gold. His opponent, frustrated, was forced into a mistake which caused his disqualification and British gold.

Sir Ben then won gold after being disqualified himself in an early race in Athens, while in London he told his rivals they “should not have made him angry” in an interview before dominating the rest of the regatta. But the best was yet to come, as he arrived as replacement tactician before inspiring Team Oracle to a 9-8 victory from 8-0 down in the 2013 America’s Cup.

His career was not flawless, and he has suffered setbacks and defeats, but after arriving at a time when Britain was not blessed with sporting winners, he became synonymous with a golden age of success, and could yet lead a British team in the next America’s Cup. He has the technical brilliance, but also the nous and rivals to be considered an all-time great.

But the great thing about debates like these, is that many others will undoubtedly sneer at such a choice and suggest someone else. And perhaps Farah could strengthen his claim with some brilliant performances over coming seasons.