Reminiscing the career of Ryan Giggs is a favourite pastime of mine. That rare beast - the one club man ? Ryan has been terrorising opposition defences in a United jersey for nearly two decades, the only player to have featured in every Premier League campaign since it's inception. He holds an extra special fondness in my memory, given his debut season was around about the time I first retain recollections of following football - even though I'd been taken as a two year old to see United lose to Norwich at Old Trafford in 1985. I barely know of a time football existed without Ryan Giggs.
Here I've selected five games which, for me, best encapsulate the United legends career. And in doing so, it occurred to me just how following football had changed. Back at the start of Giggs career, the full commercialisation of football had yet to fully take hold. Most games still kicked off at the traditional times. But for the non-regular match going supporter, following your side was a damn site trickier. The situation today where virtually every United game is televised didn't exist. You couldn't find a stream from Indonesia or wherever to watch the game on the internet. So in addition, the selected games involve five very different mediums for following United...
Man City Home, 4th May 1991, English League Division One. ITV Highlights.
They may be my earliest recollections, but they're still hazy! Ryan had made his debut against Everton in March, but breaking the first team was no mean feat even for a phenomenon, with only two named substitutes permitted. His first start came a couple of months later in the derby match at Old Trafford. United, yet again, were nowhere near the title by this stage, but the stakes are always high against City.
These were the final weeks of ITV's 'The Match' highlights programme, formerly and more commonly known today as 'The Big Match'. Bizarrely for much of the 80's, ITV and BBC took it in turns on an annual basis to broadcast Saturday afternoon highlights, until ITV eventually secured full rights. Obviously not much has changed since then, and millions still tune into Match of the Day to see action from the top flight, especially the rare occasions United still have a 3pm Saturday kick off.
Just over 45,000 saw Giggs score his first United goal and the games decider. Or rather they didn't, in truth Colin Hendry put the ball in his own net, but the romantic notion of Ryan scoring his first against our fierce City rivals - for whom a few years previous he'd been part of their school of excellence - is too great to toss aside! He didn't feature again in the remaining few games of the season, but became a regular the next, starting 32 division one games with an additional six substitutes appearances. Giggs had arrived.
Norwich City Away, 5th April 1993, Premier League. Teletext.
Many cite the home match against Sheffield Wednesday, famous for the two deep injury time strikes from Steve Bruce and the resultant giddy sideline celebrations from Messrs. Ferguson and Kidd, as 'the moment'. But the importance of the game prior isn't to be underestimated either. Norwich were right up there challenging for the title along with Aston Villa, and United went into the game without a win in four, at the business end of the season, with memories of the choke job a season prior to hand Leeds the title still fresh in the mind. A trip to Carrow Road seemed a fairly daunting fixture at the time.
There's nothing quite like following a game on Teletext! The match was broadcast on Sky Sports, but with no expensive subscription, and being too young to watch down the pub, options were limited. I'm assuming I followed on ITV's Teletext rather than BBC's rival service Ceefax, I recall one being notably better than the other, though not why nor which. Sitting in front of the TV for 90 minutes, patiently waiting for the screen to refresh, for the scoreline to change, praying it was your side that broke the deadlock. In retrospect you have to question the sanity of it all, but you just can't knock the joy of taking the lead seeing that magical '1' and the goalscorers name appear, even when you have absolutely no idea how it happened!
Thankfully, I've seen the goals since. The opener was a real typical United goal of the time. Schmeichel collects the ball, and launches a pin point throw to the chest of Sharpe. He turns one, then plays a lovely outside boot pass to Cantona in the middle of the park, who criminally has been allowed acres of space. He sparks a fag, reads the days newspaper, then slips Giggs through on goal, who makes light work of rounding the keeper and slotting home into the empty net. Giggs is also involved in the sensational breakaway team goal which puts us two up. Cantona makes it three before half time and despite Norwich later pulling one back, the game is over. United go on to end their 26 year wait for league title glory. Ryan collects the first of eleven... and counting.
Arsenal Villa Park, 14th April 1999, FA Cup Semi Final Replay. BBC Radio 5
A very special season for United supporters, and this was a very special game within that. The original tie also held at Villa park had been a relative bore. These days cup semi's are decided on the day, but back then it went to replay. 10,000 less supporters attended the replay, probably more to due with it being held on a Wednesday evening. Those who did witnessed an epic, one of the great games of football, between two of the best sides of the era. Roy Keane had been sent off. Bergkamp should have won it from the spot. In extra time, Viera plays an uncharacteristic slack pass in midfield, and the rest as they say...
Although I later watched the terrestrial highlights, I actually followed the game on radio. Still no Sky Sports! I've listened to many a game on Five Live, and this has to be one of the most memorable for sheer drama. You typically hear two commentators, who take a half of each half, with a co-commentator who chirps in for the duration. Sadly, one of the commentators is nearly always outed Scouse sympathiser Alan Green. Back then he wasn't quite displaying the levels of clear bitterness towards United as he does today, even though he was never shy of bringing up his feud with Ferguson, and could actually be a decent commentator when he put his mind to it. Still, radio coverage is an invaluable tool to the football supporter, unable to get themselves in front of live pictures.
Giggs had actually been relatively anonymous during normal time. As if the goal wasn't sensational enough, the celebration topped it all, whipping off his shirt to reveal a small orchard on his chest, swinging it around his head like a lunatic. There had been talk for a while of a possible treble bid, a home draw to Juventus the week prior (courtesy of a late Giggs strike) had tempered that somewhat, but perhaps the belief in adversity acquired that night played a role in United's magnificent comeback out in Turin after going two down, and further down the line in the final itself.
Juventus Away, 25th February 2003, Champions League Group Stages. Attended.
By all rights, this shouldn't have been a triumphant night for the Welsh wizard. The United supporters had been at their most hostile towards their own, this the peak of the scandalous 'Giggs bashing' era. The player himself was heavily linked with a move to Moratti's Internazionale. He wasn't even named in Ferguson's starting line up, his involvement came courtesy of an early Diego Forlan ankle injury.
More pressing than Giggs woes from a personal viewpoint, I was on my first Euro away, and I've just seen a Juventus fan angrily chasing after another supporter with a large wooden fence panel, with the onlooking Carabinieri looking particularly disinterested in matters. Why am I worried? My seat is in amongst the home sections of the Deli Alpi. I daren't utter a word in case my dulcet Northern tones are picked up on. Despite events during the game I remained on best behaviour! Given the United section was pelted with all kinds from start to finish, I pondered whether I didn't have the better end of the deal anyway.
As for Ryan, the performance was sensational. So good Ferguson took him back off again at half time, his work complete! Two goals, the second of which was particularly sublime, picking the ball up in an almost identical fashion to the '99 semi final, on the halfway line from a weak Conte cross field pass. The Juve defenders were scared to even get close to their man, running at pace he wrong-footed Ferrara with ease, cut across the edge of the area, brushed past Montero and slotted right footed past the resigned Buffon with ease. United victor 3-0 on a ground Juve hadn't even conceeded in 8 games of Champions League football, and qualify for the next round. I rate the forty minute cameo as the greatest individual performance of Giggsy's career.
Wigan Athletic Away, 11th May 2008. Premier League. Sky Sports
I'm not ashamed to admit I cried that day. Not at sealing yet another Premier League title, in fact I can't ever remember crying for any success. But this was different. This was a player I'd spent all my football life following, supporting, scoring the goal that sealed us the league title, his tenth at the time. Given my frankly unhealthy fascination with the game down the years, our lives seem intertwined somehow. In truth it was one of the simpler goals he's ever scored in a United shirt, the Wigan defence parted as Rooney fed him the ball, Giggs turned and coolly slotted past Kirkland. It was the moment he ran behind the goal with all the United supporters in ecstasy that set me off. And then a couple more times as the fans chanted his name!
The commercialisation of football has clearly come at a cost, many of the old traditions of the game have been lost, some have been priced out by ever increasing ticketing policy. Sky Sports lie at the heart of that, it's hard to envisage the game in this country being the same today without their input. That said, their coverage is excellent, and following your side throughout the season has become so much easier. I've been a season ticket holder for many years now, but using their services I can usually re-watch the game not long after returning home if I so wish. And for away games, where a certain status quo remains with the ticketing system making attendance for the unlucky majority tough to impossible, it provides the best medium for following the game.
And so through to the modern day. Ryan Giggs is still producing the goods, and has arguably had the best start of anyone in a United shirt so far this campaign. Who knows how much longer the 35 year old will continue to play, with his contract expiring at the end of the season. The day he retires will be a desperately sad one, albeit a chance to reflect back fully on his remarkable career and celebrate his record breaking achievements. The days of 'sack Fergie, sell Giggs' are a shameful, distant memory. Watching him play even now, you easily envisage him staying on for another couple of years. The legs may start to go, but the best never lose it. And young Ryan truly is one of the best.
