It is all very well noting that Ryan Giggs has just won his ninth league title, breaking the record held by Liverpool’s Phil Neal and Alan Hansen, and will become the most decorated player in English football should he add a fifth FA Cup winner’s medal to his collection at Wembley on Saturday.
But slightly meaningless statistics like that make the head spin and the medals belong in a public collection, which happens to be where all the Giggs gongs reside anyway — at Manchester United’s museum.
”I wouldn’t spend time looking at them now,” he says. ”Maybe when I retire I will.”
What gives a better impression of the Giggs years of over-achievement at Manchester United is his blasé, throwaway remark about Arsenal and Chelsea’s success in the past three seasons. ”I was beginning to get worried,” he says. ”I’ve never gone three seasons without winning the title before.”
That is what Chelsea are up against in the final. A frightening amount of experience, seasoned with some fresh new faces just finding out what winning is all about. When you have been in the business of winning as long as United under Sir Alex Ferguson, the two elements begin to feed off each other.
”Certain players give you a new lease of life,” the 33-year-old Giggs explains. ”You get a buzz from watching them play, especially the last couple of days seeing the faces of the lads who’ve won their first championship.
”I remember when I won my first championship, it’s the best feeling in the world. These lads — Rooney, Ronaldo, Fletcher and Sheasy [John O’Shea] — are so happy to have done it, that’s definitely been a factor in enjoying my football a little bit more this season.”
Everyone else has been enjoying United’s football this season, though Giggs remains ”sceptical” about claims that everyone now roots for them.
”I think there might have been a bit of a change; it’s always the case when teams are winning everything that people want to see them lose. Perhaps people want us to win because of the way we play, too; we’ve played a lot of attacking football this year.
”I have to be careful what I say, but I suppose we are a bit more cavalier than Chelsea. They are more patient, a bit more European in the way they pack their midfield and play from a defensive platform.”
Just as Giggs does not count his medals or dwell unduly on the past, he is not one to be content with success in the present, either. Disappointed when United could not build on their 1999 treble success by reaching more European Cup finals, he will feel similarly if the present team do not go on to even greater things in the near future.
”Potentially this team can be the best ever, because of the quality and age of the players,” he says. ”We have so many players at the start of their career or starting to hit the peak of their career and we genuinely have world-class players in the team.”
Ferguson also believes the current team may yet carry all before them.
”The signs are all good,” he says. ”I’ve been impressed with the character we’ve shown in certain games this season and the ages are right, too. Giggs, Scholes and Neville can all carry on for at least another couple of seasons, so this team can stay together for a few years. I expect them to improve.”
There is no doubt, though, that the Premiership is a truer test of the best team in the country. No doubt either that the Champions League ethos is diminished when the two finalists are non-champions who have not allowed domestic contests to disrupt their preparation.
No one is saying the Champions League is perfect; it just happens to be the event every player and every club wants to win and Giggs is no different. ”What happened in Milan hasn’t taken the gloss off our season,” he insists.
”Maybe when I’m reflecting on the season it might seem a disappointment, but right now winning the Premiership is a great achievement. Milan deserved to win, they were the better team and they prepared a lot better purely because they weren’t going for the league like us.”
Clearly what United must do to win more European Cups is to stop going for trebles each season, but it will never happen. Chelsea are just as recklessly bold, which is one reason few can deny that the best two teams in England this season are meeting at Wembley.
The FA Cup final is not going to be an afterthought; there is still a lot to play for.
”I played Chelsea in my first FA Cup final and won 4-0 [in 1994],” Giggs says. ”That was a totally different Chelsea, though, not the team full of stars that has been so successful and consistent for the last few years.
”We’ve been consistent this season and that gives us a lot of satisfaction. We’ve felt we were good enough in the past two or three years, but we weren’t always consistent and that’s what you need to be to win titles. FA Cup finals, I don’t know. I hope it’s 4-0 again but somehow I don’t think it will be.” — Â