20,000 Manchester United fans have voted Ryan Giggs the Greatest Ever Player in the history of the club – and it’s hard to argue with them. However ‘greatness’ is described, Giggs has every quality. United’s all time record appearances maker is enough on its own to place him amongst the greats. Then there’s the fact that no other player has helped the club to win more trophies. As was to be expected in these type of polls however, questions are always raised with Sir Alex Ferguson himself expressing surprise as to the make up of the Top 10 Legends.
Ferguson certainly indicated that he found it hard to comprehend some of the omissions from the list but also offered a possible explanation for it “No Denis Law? Ridiculous!” he said “No Duncan Edwards, either? I can understand why, though. It’s a generational thing, and a lot of the people voting never saw those guys in action. Talk to anyone who watched Denis or Duncan play, though, and they’ll tell you they were the best ever.”
Having said that, the manager was not surprised to see Giggs come top of the pile saying “Longevity always comes into play in these things and Ryan’s been around for more time than any other player” he explained “When you look at the galaxy of stars that have been at this club, this is a huge honour for Ryan. There are some who would maybe put others ahead of him – players such as Denis Law, George Best or Eric Cantona – but nobody can argue he doesn’t deserve to be in that top bracket.”
Just a final thought, if someone like Andy Carroll is deemed to be worth £35million and Fernando Torres £50m on todays transfer market, what would Giggs have been valued at if he was 15 years younger? The mind boggles!
We pay tribute to the man who will most certainly be known as Sir Ryan in the next few years.
The remainder of the Top 10 were
No.2 Eric Cantona
No.3 George Best
No.4 Sir Bobby Charlton
No.5 Cristiano Ronaldo
No.6 Paul Scholes
No.7 David Beckham
No.8 Roy Keane
No.9 Peter Schmeichel
No.10 Wayne Rooney
And these are some who narrowly missed out on United’s ‘greatest’ top ten…
11. Duncan Edwards
12. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
13. Denis Law
14. Bryan Robson
15. Ruud van Nistelrooy
Is it REALLY possible for polls like this to ever be accurate?
