I just don’t agree at all mate. Consistency and doing it across seasons, in multiple big games means far more than having a couple of intense peak seasons.
A 20 year career playing at Giggs level trumps the 2-3 year spell of Mane. Giggs was winning leagues as a world class footballer while Mane was being average for Southampton.
Players like Aguero have not won player of the year either, but he has had a better career and has been a better player than so many that have come and gone. I would rate him above Mane too.
Mane needs to do it for longer, it’s that simple. Giggs has 20 years that match up or beat ANY of Mane’s years bar 2019 and 2020. There is no point using a peak season as a barometer. He was a better all-round footballer and was more technically gifted than Mane. That was proven by winning trophies as a midfielder after his pace was gone.
But I just wanted to explain myself without derailing the thread more!
But I fully understand why Keane was so eager to have him in. He knows how good he was. It was nice to see Keane sticking up for his players and talking about how much he loved playing with them. The sly smiles are great fun to watch.
The 20 year thing is a skewed metric, because one player is like 50 and one is 26. You are again air-brushing by implying Giggs maintained a consistent level for 20 seasons. He didn’t. Mané’s level are Southampton; that had United and Liverpool after him, was not worse than Giggs has ever played either. You say ‘2 or 3 peak seasons’ as if what has happened is that he then became rubbish and signed for AZ Alkmaar. This is where we are now. No player has to be great for 20 seasons to be considered as good/better than Giggs. That isn’t the metric, it’s a silly goalpost, a player doesn’t have to play for 20 seasons to be judged.
I agree that Giggs was more naturally talented than Mané. I don’t agree that he used that natural talent to become a better player. And if so, I again ask ‘when’? And if the answer is ‘when he retired after being a footballer for 23 years’, it again highlights it as a stupid metric. Mané may not have played for 20 years, but what he has done, at least since he came to England, is been a top player for the vast majority of his career here.
It’s similar to the Gary Neville argument. Where everyone consistently says he basically wasn’t that good, but he gets plaudits for being good but not that god for a long time. Giggs played for the best team in England for 20 years and never had to move etc. I can’t recall many seasons where I can say he drove us to the title. He flitted in and out as he felt in terms of brilliance and rubbishness, but picked up titles all the way because he was in the best team. When he was 26, and had not played for 23 years and therefore wasn’t judged from that perspective, he was not considered by anyone as the best player in the team or league. I can say the same for 27, 28, 29 right up to 40. Then boom, he retires and is the best winger ever. For being old. He was a flawed genius. Ronaldo game along and in a few years showed what he COULD have been. Hazard came along later and showed it again. Giggs is a PL great. Every United regular from that era is. Because they won lots of trophies.
And it’s not about Giggs not being the best player in the league. I didn’t mention strikers, I’m solely tal of wingers. In his 23 year spell in the PL for the team that won it most years, he made the team of the season 6 times. He never won the award of best player, but the other winger did a number of times - Ginola, Ronaldo, Pires. These players were all in the team of the season between 3 and 4 times I think, and spent far fewer years of their careers in the PL. Bale made it twice, and he’s been in Spain most of his career. And was voted the best player. As a winger.
You’re overrating the player he was, and perhaps confusing it or creating a cocktail where natural talent, longevity, trophies are all mixed together to create an outcome, but the reality is he may have been one of the most gifted PL players ever, but he wasn’t one of the best. And he should have been.