Henry Winter The ageless life of Ryan
Still Driven | The Welsh icon turned 40 this week but remains determined to improve his game and set the standard at United, he tells
THE man who has won 13 Premier Leagues, four FA Cups, four League Cups and two Champions Leagues, who has scored 168 goals in 951 games for Manchester United, is busy working out how he can deal with his mother’s text requesting “five tickets for Sunday”. It’s Cardiff City, the place of his birth. “It’s emotional,” Ryan Giggs admits. And on Friday, he turned 40. “It’s just another day,” he says.
It is a remarkable landmark, but it is still all about the next game for Giggs. “It’s sad because as a footballer you don’t really take a lot of it in with birthdays and Christmas. Usually you’re in training. Christmas Day I’ll be in a hotel in Hull. It’s what I’m used to. I’ve been doing it for 22 years.”
He is still driven. “I’m always trying to improve myself, never settling for playing just well. Constantly, every season, I’m questioning the sports scientists and coaches so I can get better. I’ve never been one to think ‘that was good’. I’m always looking forward. We finish a game, and it’s ‘right, great result, who’ve we got Wednesday? Get yourself ready for Wednesday.’ I probably don’t get to enjoy football as much as I could. I enjoy it for a split second, then I’m on to the next game.
“I still get angry in the dressing room. I’ll shout. I’m a moaner. If someone’s made a mistake, I’ll let them know — ‘what were you thinking?’— because I feel that’s my job.
“I hope they learn from that. It made me stronger when Bryan Robson and the others did it to me when I was starting out. I remember sitting on the coach thinking: ‘This is the end of the world, the gaffer [Alex Ferguson] has had a go at me, we’ve just got beaten and I’ve missed a chance and he’s not going to play me next week.’
“Robbo would come up and say: ‘Don’t listen to him, you’re young, you’ll make mistakes, just come back the next game.’
“This has been the perfect club for me, the perfect manager, giving young players a chance. He recognised the history of the club and could foresee young players playing in the first team from seeing them in the youth team. ‘Just do what you’ve been doing in the youth team,’ he told me.”
Now a player-coach, Giggs is sitting in a side room at Carrington, still lean, still defying time, still shaped by his schoolboy days.
“I was a stand-off at rugby league playing against props physically bigger than me. That helped make me able to take the battering. My first game [in 1991] I came on up front against Everton and Dave Watson went right through the back of me. I wasn’t intimidated.
“This Sheffield United right back was kicking me one game, giving me a few verbals. I said to Robbo: ‘That right back’s just said he’s going to break my legs.’ Robbo said: ‘Did he? You come and play centre-midfield. I’m going to play left wing for 10 minutes.’ Robbo soon came back: ‘Aye, you’re all right now, go back over.’ Problem solved! I had this mentality that if Robson was playing we’d never lose. He had that authority. Him and Brucey [Steve Bruce] were brilliant for me.
“That ’94 side had characters, men. It had power and pace. We’d football you to death, we’d fight you to death, it didn’t really matter to us, we’d beat you. We had players like Incey [Paul Ince] who’d drag the team over the finishing line, just immense. There are definitely fewer leaders now. I’m doing my [Uefa] pro licence and we talk about the game missing characters like Tony Adams, Robbo, Brucey, Keane, leaders. There are those sort of players still, like Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and John Terry. But not enough.
“David Beckham was mentally strong, as well as a great player. In ’98, ’99, 2000, he was definitely top three in the world. How many players have tried to keep him on his left foot? Still, he would get a yard and whip it in on to the head of Yorkey, Coley or Teddy.”
Giggs talks of others he has played with and against. “Gareth Bale’s similar to Cristiano Ronaldo: power, physique, exciting.
I still get angry in the dressing room. I’ll shout. I’m a moaner. If someone’s made a mistake, I’ll let them know
“Paolo Montero and Ciro Ferrara, of Juventus, were the toughest defenders I played against. But the Barcelona team who beat us at Wembley were the best I played against. They had Lionel Messi, the best I’ve seen. He’s just brilliant. You can’t kick him. You can’t rattle him. He just gets on with it.
“You could probably wind Cristiano up. He’s been rattled a few times. But in my eyes he’s still a phenomenon. Robin [van Persie] is world class. He would sometimes not have great games last year, but he’d score the winner. Wayne Rooney’s like Cristiano — a powerful, brilliant scorer, turning and running at players. He’s fit, hungry and happy.”
When Rooney was unsettled in the summer, Giggs talked to him. “I let him know I wanted him to stay: ‘This is the place for you. Bobby Charlton’s scoring record is in your sights. That’s an unbelievable record. Do you really not want to take that chance?’ ”
Rooney has stayed but football continues to change. “You rarely talk about the game now on the coach. The younger players now are straight on the phone, Twitter, whatever.”
And how did he mark his 40th: “I celebrated it early. I went away with family and friends, 30 of us.” And then? Back to focusing on the next game. — © The Daily Telegraph, London