Reuters Soccer Blog

Twenty years on and Giggs quest for glory far from over

Mike Collett on 20 years of Ryan Giggs

The world, and English soccer, was a very different place 20 years ago, but one thing has remained unchanged — Ryan Giggs is still playing for Manchester United and still in the hunt for trophies.

Wednesday marks the 20th anniversary of the day the skinny 17-year-old came on after 35 minutes of a match in the old First Division to replace the injured Denis Irwin for the first of what is now 863 appearances for the club.

His arrival went largely unremarked in the following days reports of United’s 2-0 defeat to Everton at Old Trafford.

It’s fair to say that few, if any, of the achievements and milestones he has reached since then have been similarly ignored.

Now 37, he is now the most decorated player in the history of English soccer, having won 11 League Championship medals, four FA Cups, four League Cups and two Champions Leagues.

Elder statesmen may hold key to United’s title bid

Manchester United have a rich tradition of developing precocious young talents and relying on them to do a job that could be considered beyond their years.

But despite a squad packed to the rafters with players under the age of 25, United fans are hailing the evergreen talents of a 35-year-old left winger and eagerly anticipating the return of a reliable Dutch keeper three years his senior.

The two men could be crucial to their hopes of a fourth consecutive Premier League crown.

Ryan Giggs has arguably been United’s best player this season, while Edwin van der Sar will be welcomed back by many fans who have been less-than impressed by England keeper Ben Foster’s start to the campaign.

Following the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid, a World-Player-of-the-Year-sized hole has been left in the United set-up. The Portuguese wizard made a habit of conjuring goals from nothing and rescuing points that had long-since been given up.

While Wayne Rooney has done his bit to plug the goal-scoring gap, netting seven times in United’s early season skirmishes, it is Giggs who has stepped up to the plate when the Red Devils have found themselves in trouble.

He may not have the scorching pace of his youth – that departed long ago – but he still retains that precious ability to change a game.

Bolton stump everyone in another dire predictions week

Are Bolton Wanderers so bad that not one of our Reuters Soccer Blog predictions panel thought they would win at Birmingham City?

Ye of little faith. Manager Gary Megson may not be very popular with the Bolton fans but his side will always fight. A 2-1 win at a promoted club wasn’t all that shocking.

Obviously Chelsea losing at Wigan was a real eye-opener so let’s not beat ourselves up about not guessing that. Kudos to Mitch for at least predicting a draw but he’s not getting the extra points he claims we promised him.

Generally it was a pretty dreadful weekend all round, even for the many of you out there like Chipking who have been showing us up in recent weeks.

Scores were only swelled by Stoke v Manchester United being a double-pointer.

This meant leader Simon Evans, Kevin’s Dad (making a guest appearance and adding to Kev’s total), week winner Mitch Phillips, Mike Collett and Asia Sports Desk all got 10 for rightly predicting that Ryan Giggs would come off the bench and inspire a 2-0 victory.

Feared by the Blues, Loved by the Reds, Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs…

Manchester United played Stoke City off the park on Saturday yet for 62 minutes they lacked the cutting edge to turn their superiority into goals.

Enter Ryan Giggs.

The veteran Welshman was introduced as a substitute for the often infuriating Nani after 57 minutes and took just five more to provide the pass from which Dimitar Berbatov broke the deadlock.

He then teed up John O’Shea for United’s second with a pinpoint free kick.

When Cristiano Ronaldo departed for Real Madrid, the spotlight turned on Nani and new recruit Antonio Valencia to fill his boots.

But Giggs, the club’s record appearance maker, is proving that there is no substitute for class and know-how.

Gone are the days when his twinkle toes would leave defenders swinging at thin air, but the 35-year-old’s value to Alex Ferguson’s squad is still immeasurable.

United beware: City look ready to make a lot more noise

Rarely can a defeat, and such a heart-breaking one at that, have been greeted with so much enthusiasm by the losers as Manchester City’s 4-3 reverse at Old Trafford.

Sports professionals are forever banging on about “taking the positives” from setbacks but for everyone connected with City, their performance and the whole occasion on Sunday showed that they really will be a force to be reckoned with over the next few months and years.

Despite being shorn of several of their best players and going behind after two minutes, City hung on to United like a terrier with a mouthful of trouser.

Every time United shook them off with a goal, they came back with a tighter bite. Even when the champions were peppering their goal during a period of dominance in the second half, City stayed in the game.

They were felled by Michael Owen’s 96th-minute winner, sparking wild scenes on the touchline and some enjoyable jousting from the managers.

Current England rugby manager Martin Johnson has said that he felt sure England would win the 2003 World Cup final after seeing how Australia celebrated their semi-final win over New Zealand and United’s joy, even allowing for the dramatic nature of the finale, was a few notches up on anything seen in a derby win for decades.

“They seemed quite excitable at the end which shows you what this win means to them,” said Mark Hughes. “It was reminiscent of some of the scenes with Brian Kidd and Alex Ferguson in days gone by and I saw Gary Neville running on the pitch like a lunatic.”

The sort of result that wins titles: Middlesbrough 0 United 2

In Spain, you often hear players and coaches talking about “the sort of match that decides title races”. More often that not they’re talking about the tricky away game against awkward opposition rather than a high profile match against direct rivals.

Manchester United’s 2-0 win away to Middlesbrough on Saturday was just that sort of game, and just the sort of performance that will leave their rivals utterly deflated.

It was a match that could easily have re-opened the championship. United were playing less than 72 hours after their Champions League semi-final first leg at home to Arsenal and three days before the return in London.

Middlesbrough are desperate for points, as they scrap it out at the bottom of the table, yet Alex Ferguson was able to rest a bunch of players and yet still see his team win with plenty to spare, thanks to goals from Ryan Giggs and and Park Ji-sung.

United still have a couple of potential banana skins with matches to come against Manchester City and Arsenal but this was a real show of authority, especially after Liverpool’s recent defeat here.

So as far as the title race goes, that’s that, isn’t it?

PHOTO: Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs (R) celebrates scoring against Middlesbrough with Federico Macheda, May 2, 2009. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis

Evergreen Giggs wins PFA award

Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs was voted Player of the Year for the first time by the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) on Sunday.

Giggs has only made 12 Premier League starts this season, scoring a single goal, so I guess we really have to look at this award as recognition for his long years of service at United, for whom he’s made just shy of 800 appearances.

United players dominated the shortlist for the award and there will be no complaints from Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Cristiano Ronaldo or Edwin van der Sar. Perhaps Steven Gerrard has reason to be disappointed but in a season without the sort of candidate you just can’t argue with, perhaps a touch of sentimentality in the award is no bad thing…

And it will look good on the mantlepiece next to the 11th league championship medal that seems a certainty after Saturday’s thrilling win over Spurs.

PHOTO: Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo (L) positions the ball before taking a shot in front of his teammate Ryan Giggs during their Champions League soccer match against Inter Milan at San Siro stadium in Milan February 24, 2009. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Friday afternoon question: Should Giggs win PFA player of the year?

Ryan Giggs has probably never received the recognition he deserves for his contribution to Manchester United’s success over the last 15 years.

No other player has collected the full set of medals for all the silverware which has filled the Old Trafford trophy cabinet over that time. Yet several, including Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and Cristiano Ronaldo, have received the major individual awards which have eluded the man who has played more games for United than anyone else.

Giggs started in the first team as a 17-year-old winger famously likened by his manager Alex Ferguson to a “spaniel chasing a slip of paper in the wind”. Ferguson recently described Giggs as the ultimate professional whose burning desire to continue playing at the highest level at the age of 35 should make him a role model for all aspiring footballers.

Giggs has unsurprisingly lost the raw pace which, combined with his skills, used to leave defenders with what his manager called “twisted blood”. But he more than compensates now with a vast experience which allows him to play in a variety of positions.

Ferguson played Giggs as a holding central midfielder in the recent Premier League win over Chelsea and he was used as a striker in Sunday’s FA Cup victory over Derby County. Typically, the Welshman gave a masterclass of passing and clever touches which created three goals and prompted more calls for him to be named England’s Footballer of the Year.

From exuberant spaniel to top dog. That would be a fitting reward for one of British football’s most popular and enduring players.

Does the captaincy really matter in football?

Here’s a question for you: Who is Manchester United’s official club captain?

The hullabaloo surrounding the England cricket skipper has shown how different the role is in the two sports.

I think Gary Neville is actually the club captain at United, but to be honest I’m not sure. He has been injured for most of the last two years so Ryan Giggs took over.

The Welshman is in and out of the team, though, so Rio Ferdinand has donned the armband the most recently. (The pair lifted the Champions League trophy in May, see right, with poor Gary left on the sidelines).

Let’s face it, it doesn’t really matter who the captain is on the football field. Technical areas are so large now that coaches can bark the orders and leave centre backs, traditionally the obvious skippers, to the defending.

In Spain, clubs often have several club captains and in Italy it generally goes to the most-experienced player.

Paolo Maldini, 40, is club captain at AC Milan but plays once every three games. If the captain was that important, wouldn’t they appoint one who played every game?

Who’s the best one-club player?

One-club players are rare and precious.

The likes of Paolo Maldini, Raul, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes might be handsomely paid by their clubs, but the fact they have spurned chances to get even richer elsewhere suggests they share at least some of the fans’ devotion to the colours they wear.

Inter Milan’s Patrick Vieira recognised this recently when talking about his former Juventus team mate Alessandro Del Piero.

“What I like about him, and envy a little, is that he has played all his career for the same team and won everything with that team,” Vieira told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Indeed, Del Piero has a good claim to being the world’s top one-club man.

Five Serie A titles and a Champions League are part of the 34-year-old’s trophy haul at Juventus. He also holds the Turin club’s record for appearances and goals — he netted his 250th for Juve in Saturday’s 4-0 win at Reggina.

AC Milan’s Maldini has more Serie A and Italy appearances than Del Piero, Real Madrid’s Raul has scored more European goals and both have won more Champions Leagues, as have Scholes and his Manchester United team mate Ryan Giggs.