Alex Ferguson had been manager of Manchester United for less than two months when a local newsagent and part-time ground steward named Harold Wood seized his chance.
Wood had been telling the club for weeks — though no one was listening — about an outstanding schoolboy who was training with Manchester City but was passionate about United. He reckoned United’s bright new boss might listen and he was right. As soon as Ferguson set eyes on Ryan Wilson, or Ryan Giggs as he was about to become on dropping his father’s surname and adopting his mother’s, a train was set in motion that is still running smoothly to this day.
Two destinies were secured on a muddy field in Salford around Christmas 1986. Giggs would go on to sign schoolboy forms for United on his 14th birthday the following November, while Ferguson would go on to describe him as his most valuable signing. Peter Schmeichel or Denis Irwin might have been the canniest, Eric Cantona the most influential and Roy Keane the most important, but for a manager who prides himself on youth development Giggs was a once-in-a-lifetime find. ”We protected him like the treasure he was,” Ferguson has said. ”Looking back I can honestly say that all the money United paid me in my years at Old Trafford was justified at a stroke by securing Ryan.”
The point of this lesson in ancient history is to show that Giggs has been around for almost all of Ferguson’s 20 years at United. Indeed, in November next year he will be able to celebrate his own 20th anniversary at the club.
One would not wager too much money against Ferguson still being at his side. The pair go together and pleasingly, when asked for his recollections of the past two decades, Giggs came up with touchingly personal ones. His two proudest moments in football, for instance, came long before the doubles, the treble or that fondly remembered goal in the 1999 FA Cup semifinal against Arsenal.
”That is all becoming a bit of a blur now,” he admits. ”What I remember most vividly is making my full debut at 17. I can still hear the manager saying, ‘And Ryan, you’ll be playing on the left’, as clear as if it was yesterday. That’s my proudest moment, that and seeing the manager’s big gold Mercedes parked outside our house.”
Giggs would like to be able to say his first proud moment was opening the front door to Ferguson but, as 13-year-olds will, he stayed out playing too long, forgot the time and got home to see the manager’s car sitting in silent reproach. On double yellow lines, naturally. The eventual outcome was the same, though, and soon it was Ferguson’s turn to make Giggs feel at home.
”He’s done a lot for me outside football over the years,” Giggs says. ”He made that promise on the day I signed. I was in his office posing for the official photograph when I signed my schoolboy forms, and he said there were lots of coaches at the club who could help me with my football; but if I had any personal problems I could come to him.
”He said his door was always open and that was important, because my mum and dad were splitting up and it was a tricky time for me personally. He knew that, he knew both my parents’ names and he was someone I could talk to. I found it hard to believe, at that age, that someone like him could care so much, but that was one of the things that made him stand out. He didn’t just know my mum and dad’s names, he knew all the other lads’ parents’ names, too, and little things like that made you want to play for him.
”From the outside people just see a fierce and sometimes angry competitor, but from an early age I saw his other side. Over the years he’s always supported me, he’s always known what I’m capable of doing and he’s always made that clear.
There was some doubt about my future here when I came to negotiate my last contract, but once he had reassured me I was in his plans I didn’t have much hesitation in signing.”
This is the mature Giggs speaking, of course. The teenage Giggs, he freely admits now, was not always so appreciative of Ferguson’s suffocating supervision. ”You could say he took an interest in my off-field activities,” he explains with heavy irony. ”Especially in the early days. I suppose I can see the point of it now, being professional you have to look after yourself, but at the time it was a pain.
”You’d go out on a Saturday night with your mates and on the Monday morning he’d tell you where you were, what you’d had and who you had been with. He just knows every-one; there was no getting away from him. I wasn’t actually that bad most of the time, but he always thought the worst. If I ever came in clean-shaven he’d assume I’d been out the night before. ‘Oh aye’, he’d say. ‘Where were you last night?’ I’d say nowhere and he’d say, ‘Well why have you had a shave, then?”’
Ferguson has seen off many players in his time, some of them star names and still performing well, though in almost every case he made sure United had the best years. Giggs quickly learned that a top-level club is a structure in a constant state of renewal, and that anyone who sticks around for anything like 20 years is an exception rather than the norm.
When Giggs was 21, Ferguson sold Mark Hughes, Andrei Kanchelskis and Paul Ince. ”I was bewildered at first,” Giggs says. ”Incey was my best mate and Sparky [Hughes] was my hero when I was growing up, so I was gutted to see them go. Like everyone else I wondered whether it was necessary, though I did know that behind the scenes we had good young players coming through. I still had no idea we were going to be so successful, but once I saw the overall plan work so well it taught me never to doubt the manager again.”
Giggs knows from personal experience that a footballer should be at his peak in his late 20s and believes that principle underpins Ferguson’s careful handling of teenage prodigies.
”Wayne Rooney is a great player now, but a good manager will take care to make sure he’s still a great player at 28 or 29, because that’s when you should be playing your best football,” he explains. ”The manager is making sure the foundations are in place so that players like Wayne and Cristiano [Ronaldo] can be the best in the world a few years down the line. That’s the way he works and that’s why I think he’ll be around for a few more years yet. His hunger is still there. He believes in this team, he’s excited by the talent at the club at the moment and he wants to see how far we can go.
‘Four years ago I thought he was going to retire, because that’s what he said he was going to do, but it didn’t surprise me when he changed his mind. I think he knew he was going to miss it and decided he wasn’t ready.”
Surely Giggs was ready for a change, though? He made his debut in 1991 and 15 years is a long time to listen to the same team talk. Many managers who have lasted only half as long complain that players tire of hearing the same voice saying the same things every week. ”I’m not saying I’ve listened to every team talk over the years,” Giggs admits. ”I’ve probably fallen asleep in half of them, or at least that’s what the manager believes.”
Like his manager, Giggs is not one for dwelling in the past. ”Football is about the present and the future,” he says. ”The time for looking back is when you retire. I’m sure history will judge Sir Alex to have been this club’s greatest manager, but that’s not on our minds now. Everyone is disappointed that after winning the Champions League we didn’t go on to win it again, and obviously we would love to put that right. But for me at the moment winning the Premiership is what I’d like to do most. The gaffer is just the same. First things first.” — Â