Old boys back as good as new

July 17, 2006

RETURN: Solskjaer

RYAN Giggs reckons United have the equivalent of three new signings in the bag already.

The Red veteran hailed the return of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Paul Scholes in the 4-0 demolition of Orlando Pirates in Durban on Saturday.

And he is looking forward to seeing Argentina defender Gabriel Heinze - out for virtually the whole of last season with a cruciate injury - back in a red shirt after his extended World Cup leave.

Scholes is back after a worrying eye complaint, while the luckless Solskjaer, ravaged by knee problems for the previous two years, saw his hopes of a sustained comeback wrecked first by a hamstring strain, then a broken cheekbone.

Against Orlando Pirates, Scholes showed the full range of his sublime passing skills, while Solskjaer netted twice, with all the precision of old.

"You always expect new faces and the manager is hoping to strengthen but with Ole, Paul and Gaby coming back it will be like having three new signings anyway," said the Welshman.

"It feels like Paul is starting afresh. He is really looking forward to the new season and the two goals were just what Ole needed."

Ferguson knows his current squad is unlikely to wrest the title back from Chelsea hence his decision to target Fernando Torres and Michael Carrick.

Fire sale

While Carrick is seen as the midfield anchor that will allow Scholes and Giggs to roam into more offensive areas, Torres is tipped as the man who will replace Ruud van Nistelrooy, once the Dutchman completes his expected move to Real Madrid.

With Ferguson also taking the virtually unprecedented step of admitting he will try to take advantage of the fire sale which will accompany the demotion of scandal-hit trio Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio, the Reds could look vastly different when they face Fulham in their Premiership opener on August 20.

"Ole is a terrific option for us," said Ferguson. "He has this great natural talent and is the type of player who warms up in front of goal, rather than freezes.

"If you go back three seasons, he was really starting to excite us in that wide right position.

"He has this amazing understanding and awareness. He was a revelation at the time and there are still great possibilities for him there.

"At the moment though, it is just fantastic to have him back.

"There are many examples of players who have dedicated their lives to recovering from injury, pushing themselves through gym sessions sometimes four times a day. Ole is one of them.

"He always said he would come back. I don't want to push him too much too soon and 45 minutes is enough for him at the moment. But he has worked incredibly hard and now we just hope he gets some luck."

Can Scholes and Solskjaer return to their glory days? Have your say

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David Kelly, Dublin (17/07/2006 at 09:32)

This maybe the beginning of a club propaganda campaign which suggests we dont need any new signings.

Utd4Ever, UK (17/07/2006 at 09:59)

Giggsy should really keep his mouth shut! As good a servant as he has been, his place should be one of those under threat as he has not exactly been a model of consistency these past three years. As for OGS, I think Fergie has tried to make it quite clear that he will be playing a role as a squad player. Let's not get carried away with Scholes either. One of my all time favourite players but be in through illness, injury or loss of form he has not played his best football these past couple of years. My guess is that Giggs is being employed as Fergie's spokesman, ie expect more or less the same team this year!

English Bob, Trafford (17/07/2006 at 10:05)

Sure its like 3 new signings. But of 3 players who you can set your watch by being injured again. I echo Mr. Kelly's fears as to 'addition' the non-spending route.

Bertie Magoo, Salford (17/07/2006 at 10:05)

Heard it all before, last July to be precise.
So United arn't buying anybody and Ruuds going for ??8 million, great bit of pre-season work. WTF is going on.
United 6th at best this season, does anybody out there honestly believe I'll be proved wrong?

TMUF, Manchester (17/07/2006 at 10:07)

David Kelly I doubt it. I just think Giggs is happy to see three important players back that we missed out on last season. We will DEFINETLY make new signings. We should all be paitent as I am sure the Glazers wouldnt allow us to not improve ON the pitch

Graham, Aberdeen (17/07/2006 at 10:11)

all the "superstars" of juventus that are now available are about the same age as Giggs, Scholes and OGS... why should we not expect them to perform?

bobbydazzler, lowton (17/07/2006 at 10:11)

remember last summere saf told us we had our best squad ever

Pro-rata, Huddersfield (17/07/2006 at 10:20)

David Kelly, I hope not, but it was the first thought to cross my mind as well.

Sterling, Salford (17/07/2006 at 10:36)

Sure I've heard such talk somewhere before...

khaled mahmood, bangladesh (17/07/2006 at 11:04)

This is another case of Fergie spin and is a disgusting disgrace. Solskjaer is too old and has missed to much football. Once Fergie said he was "brilliant" a "revelation" playing wide right. The truth he he wasnt. It was spin to pretend we didnt need Becks. Next he will be saying that we dont need a striker to replace Ruud or a new midfielder because Ole can play in both those positions. If we werent good enough to catch Chelsea last year, we wont be this year if Ruud isnt replaced by a 30 goal a season striker, and that isnt Ole or Rossi. I cringed when Fergie waxed lyrical about Scholes, "Its like the best close season signing ever, blah, blah". Scholes hasnt been the same player for over 3 years, and never will be again, just like Ole. We've seen the folly of keeping players past their sell buy date, not replacing them with youth, and letting Fergie tell us they're as good as ever = Keano. Solskjaer couldnt get in the starting line up for big games at his peak, and Scholes is just a give and go neat player (who makes ridiculous challenges) now, nothing more. If we are to be one of the great clubs in Europe again, we have to buy young world class talent. We have to sign players like Ka KA, Gattusso, Torres, Pirlo, Ballack, Requelme, Ribery. And what do we have to look forward to this year instead? Has been reserve players like Solskjaer and "The future of the club" Fletcher, (who again looked weak, slow and never won a tackle against a third rate Orlando Pirates team), and maybe David Jones. The biggest disgrace is that Fergie is insulting fans intelligence. Fans paying ??700 a year at O.T. dont do it lightly, for a lot of them its a major cost on their wages. These people know about football, they're not fools. They loved Ole, but know his time has gone. They think Fletcher is a powderpuff lightweight that will never make it, and he is. Dont patronise the fans Fergie, they arent all morons.

ravem, manchester (17/07/2006 at 11:05)

Kidding ourselves if we think we can keep up with the big guns, I'll give it till the end of October and we'll be 10 points adrift. We need to buy and buy decently.

Free Red (accept no palpitations), Manchester (17/07/2006 at 11:14)

Looks like United are odds on favourites to win the South African Championship with this showing.

chris, oxford (17/07/2006 at 11:23)

Here we go again; the same old quotes. Less talk, more action is required.

DC, Amsterdam (17/07/2006 at 11:26)

Great, now we don't need to sign anyone, because we can play heinze and scholes in the middle and Ole up front!

Utd4Ever, UK (17/07/2006 at 11:51)

Khaled, you do make a couple of very good points. Even at his peak OGS struggled to become a first team regular, only reaching super sub status at the best of times. I think Scholesy has been a superb player, among the top midfielders in the world and certainly one of my favourites. However, you are correct in saying that his game seems to have deteriorated over the past three years. No need to look further back than the beginning of last season before his eye condition, in terrible form and very much criticised on this website. If Fergie is in any way trying to convince us that this is the way forward then he has lost it in a big way.

Andy Cooper, Birmingham (17/07/2006 at 12:39)

Khaled: Excellent comments - and unfortunately all too accurate!

Sav, Manchester (17/07/2006 at 12:42)

I'm a great admirer of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer & Paul Scholes & there's no doubt in the early stages of there career they were World Class but they are fighting a losing battle with there age, United need to bring in 2 or 3 "Quality" players this season not to just make up numbers but to replace the talent we once had, We don't stand a great chance of getting the title back off Chelsea if we don't strengthen the squad even more so then last season.

de Meester, Amsterdamned (17/07/2006 at 12:59)

Good news that the 3 - Heinze, Scholsey and ?"le.
Hope that all their troubles are over.
Fact is we still need the important role filling - CM.
Would be nice to tempt old-foe Vieira, however thionl he'll consider a return-trip to PL land a 'step down'.
Get Malbranque for the moment, he's attainaable - at a song and player who'd fit in at OT.
As a lot of this so-called'interest'
cetainly keeps the papers busy, I wonder if SAF knows where to turn!?
It's got to be the heat!!!

Free Red, Manchester, (Accept no imitations) (17/07/2006 at 13:27)

free red replica. what did you think of the Billy Casper shorts then? Real passion killers.

ben, sweden (17/07/2006 at 14:13)

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