THE END IS NIGH
The achievements dwindle for the ageing footballer. Coming on for Roy Keane in the 89th minute, Ryan Giggs may not have been proud of taking the field a few seconds before the younger Park Ji-sung, and the crowd at Anfield showed no interest. During Sunday's goalless draw this glimpse of Giggs was a reminder that the Premiership's monotony is not all down to 4-5-1, the zombie formation trudging its unstoppable way through the fixture list. It has as much to do with the waning of key individuals.
Giggs is not quite 32 but, when the cameras pick him up nowadays, it will usually be in the background, stretching and whiling away the afternoon until he finds out whether there will be any niche for him. Others with whom he has shared such adventures are destined for the margins and there was pathos at the weekend in the realisation that Paul Scholes had once again given a scuffler's performance.
Each flash of the old devilment, such as the verve of his near-post header when he embarrassed Jean-Alain Boumsong in April to score against Newcastle United in the FA Cup semi-final, inspires claims that he is back in form but the moments of vitality do not coalesce into a prolonged resurgence. When he ended his England career there was a hope that a tighter focus on his club career would rejuvenate him. Nowadays, though, that has given way to a constant suspicion that something in him has been extinguished that will never be relit.
That judgment could be made to look ridiculous by a moment or two of goal-hungry brilliance but it is beyond dispute that time is running out for a generation of footballers who used to give the United team its appetite and flair. Having made a swift recovery from a hamstring strain, Roy Keane broke a metatarsal against Liverpool. Even if that might just have been bad fortune, it must sharpen a 34-year-old's dread that each venture on to the pitch is an appointment with his next injury.
The feeling of dusk at United is accentuated while Gary Neville is missing, even if he almost certainly has a few more good seasons in him. Sir Alex Ferguson knows that a transition is in progress and, by moving on men like Nicky Butt and Phil Neville, he has even accelerated it. Prior to the Malcolm Glazer takeover he had ample funds to restock the squad but the manager will realise that even the sumptuous talents of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney cannot recreate the chemistry of the Giggs generation that grew up together and discovered a destiny together.