Andy Reid, le jeune joueur de Forrest je crois, connais pas trop non plus...
All-time great wingers
Paul Hince continues his series looking at some all-time greats.
BILLY MEREDITH
HAD Billy Meredith been born in 1976 and not 1906, there is absolutely no doubt that today he would be enjoying super-star celebrity status of David Beckham proportions.
Renowned for his habit of playing with a toothpick in his mouth, Meredith was one of the great left-wingers of his, or any other generation.
He was blessed with phenomenal speed but was also a centre-forward´s dream for his ability to whip over devastatingly-accurate crosses.
Born at Black Park, Chirk, just over the border into Wales, Meredith began his working life as a coal-miner before arriving at Manchester City in 1894 after spells at Norwich and Wrexham.
He was capped for the first time for Wales at the age of 21, but his career looked to be over in 1905 when he was charged with attempting to bribe an Aston Villa player. That charge was never substantiated but the inquiry brought to light financial irregularities at City which led to the whole team being transfer-listed.
City´s loss proved to be United´s gain with the Reds snapping up Meredith on a free transfer in 1906 with the Welshman known as " Old Skinny" inspiring his team to the League Championship in 1909, the FA Cup in 1910 and the League title again in 1911.
He made more than 300 senior appearances for the Reds and it speaks volumes for his incredible fitness that he played in an FA Cup semi-final just four months short of his 50th birthday and was still playing for Wales at 45.
RYAN GIGGS
GIGGS seems to have been part of the furniture for so long at Manchester United´s Theatre of Dreams that he appears at times to be taken for granted. Who would doubt that if Giggs had elected to play for England instead of Wales, this country´s quest for a major international trophy would have ended successfully years ago.
You cannot pay him a higher compliment than that. Ryan´s parents are Welsh, but he grew up in Salford and captained the England Boys team. He was Ryan Wilson in those days, the son of the Welsh Rugby League international Danny Wilson.
It was after his parents separated that he took his mother´s maiden name of Giggs. Manchester City were courting him as his prodigious talent began to emerge but it was the Reds who snapped Giggs up as a schoolboy and he is now United´s longest-serving player with more than 500 senior appearances against his name and eight championship medals.
Teammate Gary Neville summed him up: " To me Ryan is the best left winger in the world. And I should know because I have to mark him in training ever week."
GEORGE BEST
IT was famously said once by Bill Shankly about the legendary winger Tim Finney, but the words apply equally to George Best " you could play him anywhere - in his overcoat - and he would still be the star of the show."
And that´s what Georgie Boy was. English soccer´s first super-star. As levels of fame go, it doesn´t get any higher than that. Born in Belfast on May 22, 1946, the Irish waif will be remembered for all the wrong reasons after turning his back on United when he was still only 26 at the start of a highly-publicised battle against alcohol which is still being waged to this day.
But what shouldn´t be forgotten is that Best played for 11 seasons in the top-flight for the Reds in which he chalked up 466 League, Cup and European games which brought him 178 goals.
His sheer genius was never better illustrated than in the European Cup final against Benfica in 1968 when his impudent goal broke the spirit of the Portuguese side and set the Reds on their way to a 4-1 triumph.
DAVID BECKHAM
WITH every facet of his private life magnified by the media, there is a very real danger that in the years to come, Goldenballs Beckham will be remembered more for his exploits off the pitch rather than on it. To do that would be a grave dis-service.
For Beckham´s contribution to Manchester United´s astonishing run of successes throughout the ´90s simply cannot be over-stated.
Beckham was rejected by the England schoolboy selectors on the grounds that he was not big enough or strong enough. United, however, had spotted his potential when he took part in a soccer skills competition and signed the boy from Leytonstone on schoolboy forms on his 14th birthday.
He joined the Reds as a trainee in 1991 and a year later was a member of the famous " Class of ´92" that walked off with the FA Youth Cup. After a toughening-up spell on loan at Preston, Beckham made his senior debut early in 1993, and for the next decade he played a major part in the most successful era in United´s history which culminated in landing the " impossible" Treble of League, Cup and European Cup in 1999.
His club career was mirrored at international level, earning him the England captaincy in 2001.
His transfer to Real Madrid in the summer of 2003 was shrouded in controversy and was almost certainly provoked by the media frenzy which surrounded his every move and stretched his relationship with manager Alex Ferguson to breaking point.
