Here’s some free advice to younger Manchester United fans. The older you get, the sharper your memories become especially when it’s involved with football. The strange thing is that you tend to remember special names that may have been forgotten by most others. A perfect example is former Ireland international John Giles who after winning an FA Cup medal with United in 1963 went on to become a legend for both Ireland and Leeds United but it’s the six years spent at United that sticks in one’s memory.

Giles was voted Ireland’s greatest player so when his new book ‘John Giles: A Football Man’ is released in November, it will make compulsive reading for this old fart – and I dare say, many of the same generation. His memories of joining United as a young kid makes for a highly interesting Sunday read – here’s an extract from the book published in Irelands Sunday Independent

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In a week when Manchester United begins another Champions League campaign, we should remember one of the most blinkered decisions ever taken in the history of English football. When Chelsea won their first ever League title in 1955 they were forced to withdraw from the inaugural European Cup competition by the then Football League secretary Alan Hardaker who feared that the new competition would create too much fixture congestion. That shameful decision was not surprising because the British had a history of being suspicious of international football as shown by the fact that none of the home teams entered the World Cup until 20 years after its inception.

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The ownership of Manchester United has become a highly divisive issue for supporters of this great club. The aim of “Truly Reds, Manchester United fans blog” has always been to try and be a uniting force between the large cross section of fans spread across the globe. While many care little about who the owners are as long as the trophies keep coming into Old Trafford, thousands more feel that the club to which they have devoted most of their lives has lost its way.

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The ownership of Manchester United has become a highly divisive issue for supporters of this great club. The aim of “Truly Reds, Manchester United fans blog” has always been to try and be a uniting force between the large cross section of fans spread across the globe. While many care little about who the owners are as long as the trophies keep coming into Old Trafford, thousands more feel that the club to which they have devoted most of their lives has lost its way.

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Four years of anticipation and expectations are now only hours away. Some of football’s greatest stars are assembled in South Africa preparing to put on “The Greatest Show On Earth” but a number of others will be watching the 2010 World Cup from their living rooms back home. It must be frustrating for grossly talented players who are capable of lighting up the tournament with their outstanding skills but whose countries were unable to obtain one of the only 32 spots available.

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Millions of  England football fans are hoping – some against hope, that a picture of captain Rio Ferdinand holding aloft the World Cup will be splashed on the front pages of the global media on the morning of July 12 just like the one of  former captain Bobby Moore was on that unforgettable day in 1966. Football, like life itself is full of unanswered ‘Ifs’ and the question must be asked whether that iconic picture of  Moore would have ever appeared IF…

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