Many United fans have been watching Giggs through the latticework of their fingers this year, writes Daniel Taylor
AS ALEX Ferguson reiterated his promise to play Paul Scholes in the European Cup final and the Manchester United players waited patiently in turn to wax lyrical about Saddleworth's most famous resident, one question remained unanswered. It was of how far Ferguson's sentimentality would stretch and, more specifically, whether it would extend to the one player at Old Trafford who has been around even longer than Scholes.
Amid all the jubilant scenes at Old Trafford and the clamour to speak to Scholes - naturally, he slipped away without saying anything - no one paid much attention to Ryan Giggs as he left through a side door. It seemed to slip everyone's mind that the scene was now set for Giggs to equal Bobby Charlton's appearances record in the biggest club game of all.
Giggs is three behind, with 756 games played and three to go this season, and yet it was not brought up once in Ferguson's celebratory press conference.
As Giggs left the ground on Tuesday night, some of the supporters outside called his name and thrust their autograph books forward, but there was none of the clamour of old.
He is 34 now, an age when insecurity can appear on a footballer's horizon - even when that player has credentials to be recognised among his club's true greats - and 2008 has been a difficult year professionally, one in which he has been kept out of the starting line-up in half of United's 26 matches.
Scholes brought such great romance to the defeat of Barcelona that many United supporters will feel a twinge of sadness that Giggs's fading powers will deny him the same preferential treatment in the Luzhniki stadium on May 21st.
Yet what other conclusion can be drawn after Ferguson chose to play Park Ji-sung and Nani on the wings, omitting his longest-serving player, just as he did in Camp Nou six days earlier and Rome's Stadio Olimpico in early April?
Giggs might not have such reason to worry if he were playing well, or being held back strategically for the truly big occasions, but the answer on both counts is that he is not. Park, a right-footed player, has started on the left wing in the last three European ties, and many United supporters have been watching Giggs through the latticework of their fingers this season.
Nobody likes to see a champion grubbing around for form and, thankfully, the criticism on fans' websites has not descended into voluble dissent at games.
At times, however, it has made uneasy viewing. Giggs has started to lose the ball more often. The first flecks of grey hair have started to appear. His passing has gone strangely awry and, of course, he no longer has the scorching pace that led to Gary Pallister talking of him leaving opponents with "twisted blood".
This is not to detract from Giggs's extraordinary longevity - "He's been running up and down that bloody wing for the last 20 years," as Ferguson puts it - or to say that Scholes, 352 days his junior, has done a better job of seeing off the effects of age.
Scholes may have provided an heroic contribution on Tuesday, but it was easy to lose count of the number of occasions Deco and the mesmeric Lionel Messi took the ball past him. He, like Giggs, has looked like a player in decline this season, and Ferguson could not have been chastised had he preferred to start with Anderson.
As it is, Ferguson has promised that Scholes will be the first name on his team-sheet as he starts plotting how to mark the 50th anniversary year of the Munich disaster by returning the European Cup to Old Trafford.
It is Ferguson's gift to a man who was forced to watch the final in 1999 wearing a club suit. Giggs will have to get into the team in a more orthodox way; that might be one of his biggest battles yet.
Guardian Service
