The Lad who grew up.

  When Denis Irwin came off after 35 minutes against Everton, Manchester fans got their first glimpse of their new starlet, sneaked cleverly by Sir Alex away from arch rivals Manchester City. Then they had only one thing on their mind, the extent of Irwin's injury. However the 17 year-old who was substituted the Manchester United legend now has a legendary career of his own to look back on and is arguably his grown to be better than the man he replaced on that March evening, 1991. Now 38 years, 899 games and 162 goals later Ryan Giggs still terrorises European defenses with form and class which has not faded over his 21 year career. He is a anomaly of medical science and is the oldest outfield player playing in the Premier league.

    Over this large career, the Welshman is the only player to have scored in every Premier league season since the inaugural edition in 1992. He continues to baffle crowds and the club's personnel as he approaches his 900th game, a milestone unequaled in the clubs history, with the closest to him is the  England and United legend Sir Bobby Charlton. The Englishman made 758 appearances in a Red's shirt and. He was part of the team than Matt Busby created and survived the trauma of the most devastating moment in the club's history, The Munich Aircrash, at the tender age of 20 and returned from it to be better than he was.

  Giggs too has had his down points in his career and was even tipped to retire at the end of the last season with Edwin Van der Sar and Paul Scholes calling it a day, though the latter returned to the United team sheet in January. The veteran told the press that a hamstring injury coupled with his advancing years meant he considered calling it a day last term, but admitted the lure of pulling on the red shirt maintained his desire to continue. "When to retire is difficult. Do you quit too early or go that one too many games and let people see you on the slide? It’s hard for me, even with my experience, not to play or be involved and last season was difficult before Christmas," the Welshman told The Telegraph during an exclusive interview.

"I didn’t play many games, I had a hamstring injury and had a chat with the gaffer, saying I was frustrated, but he said I would get my games. I was thinking maybe it could be my last season, but towards the end, I didn’t want the season to stop."

  Not a bad decision. He has been instrumental in picking up points for the Reds this season and his almost flawless ball distribution continues to baffle already awe stricken admirers and defensive units. If Giggs had been an artillery gun, the army that possessed him would have won the World War. His timed   run against Arsenal a few weeks to supply Valencia and create United's opening goal showed why he is a precious asset to United and their title charge this season.


   The Welshman has won every trophy that lay in front of him in a Red shirt, the Europa league being the only exception and he looks to win it this season after a premature exit from the Champions League."There is definitely a sense that it would be great to win because it is something I have never won. It was disappointing to go out of the Champions League, you never want to go out, but we’re out of it and there is nothing we can do about it, so let’s go and win the Europa League now." he told manutd.com.


  Ryan Giggs signed a contract extension last Friday that ensured he would keep playing till the end of the next campaign. The most senior member on the team sheet he could see himself smash the milestone of 1000 senior games, seeing that he already has 64 caps for Wales.

  "Manchester United believe we may be seeing the start of a very special career this afternoon," announced Clive Tyldesley, commentating for ITV back in March '91. 

'Special' it seems, is an insult to the legacy that the Welshman leaves the club, when he leaves that is, by the time of which this blogger would be an owner of a walking stick, dentures and the thickest spectacles you have ever scene.

There have been six red cards in last nine meetings between Man Utd & Liverpool in all competitions and four in the last six games at Anfield.

United have lost only three times in the last 21 away games in all competitions. Compared to last season that is an improvement.

North Western Derby

My I-Pod calandar tells me that united's next match is a trip to Anfield to meet their long term rivals, Liverpool.
 There was a time in which a fixture like this would have been labelled a title decider, or in the case of a cup tie, the clash of heavy-weights. It still is a clash of heavy-weights but the Merseyside club has shed a lot of it's weight in recent years. They haven't won a league title for 2 decades now and their nearest success is a F.A Cup victory in 2006 with goals from Riise and Crouch. The times at Old Trafford could not have been a better contrast. Under the aegis of their current manager Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United have won 12 league titles, a total of 19 in their history. The past two years has seen the gulf in class grow as United have won a League Cup, Two community sheilds and the League while Liverpool had nothing

This tie is now just a clash of egos....a traditional rivalry, nothing else.

The tie has always been a nightmare for the Merseyside Police force with fan agitation a common occurrence. The last tie however was pretty subdued but ego-s have now been hurt following a 8 match ban for Liverpool's (arguably) best player Luis Suarez. The ban was handed out by the F.A for racially abusing Manchester United's French left-back Patrice Evra. The Kop's reaction was one too forget. King Kenny and his boys wore Luiis Suarez - Che Guerra type T shirts before their match against Wigan, drawing cricism from all quarters.

The Anfield outfit's last game draw with United's neighbors City in a League Cup Semi-Final thriller which ended a draw . City just about kept themselves in the game despite taking an early lead through Nigel De Jong long range effort. All match Liverpool had the ball but City had the goals but a late Craig Bellamy strike which saw Liverpool go through 3-2 on aggregate.

 United's clash with Arsenal......well enough has been said in the past week about tactical in-stability and Wenger's weird change of policy.......and it's true....That's all there is to that story. But United can take positives from this match.
+ Valencia has proved he's a big game player.......(park's replacement???)
+ A midfield combination of Giggs and Carrick may have been the source of Persie's goal 'cause they        can't tackle for nuts. But boy, can they pass.

Well this derby is being built up like any other. What happens on the pitch tomorrow, in spite of being the cup, can have immense phycological effect on the title race......or can't it????