Football: Giggs returns as sympathy for Kidd runs out

RYAN GIGGS hopes to return for Manchester United tonight for their critical game at Blackburn Rovers. The Welshman has been out of the team since 14 April with an ankle injury.

"I've been training for the past couple of days and hopefully I'll be involved in some way tomorrow," he said. "It's a crucial part of the season and we're in a good position."

Roy Keane will definitely not play, and may also miss the final League game of the season against Tottenham, following the ankle injury he sustained during the win at Middlesbrough last Sunday.

A spokesman for Manchester United supporters has said he will have no sympathy for the Blackburn manager, Brian Kidd, if Rovers are relegated at the hands of his former club.

Steve Briscoe, the vice-chairman of the Independent Manchester United Supporters' Association, insists that there will be no tears for their former United assistant manager or his deputy now, Brian McClair. "I will personally laugh my head off if we send them down," Briscoe said. "I don't feel sorry for Kidd. I think he wanted to know if he is capable of management but to be honest, he is like John Gregory - too emotional.

"I think he has lost the plot already, coming out and slating his players as he did on Saturday," Briscoe continued. "Alright, it was a bad performance but Alex Ferguson would never have done that. Kidd was trying to score points with the press and the fans. So I don't feel sorry for Kidd or McClair."

Briscoe also blamed Blackburn's owner and president Jack Walker for creating sky-high transfer fees and wages to achieve success - culminating in the Premiership title in 1995.

"Jack Walker, Ken Bates and John Hall have ruined football as we know it. And what have they won between them? Very little," Briscoe concluded.

The former Blackburn manager, Don Mackay, feels that Rovers' fall is because of a lack of leadership since Kenny Dalglish left the club.

The Ewood Park side have faltered under coaches Ray Harford, Roy Hodgson and Kidd ever since Dalglish's departure in 1995. Mackay, who was sacked by Rovers in September 1991 after guiding the team to three successive play-off finals, believes they are paying the price for not employing a proven manager.

"Coaches can coach things but a manager can see the wider picture. That is where Blackburn went wrong. They gave the job to good coaches but there was no-one to guide them."

Mackay added: "They probably achieved too much too quickly without any real foundation being built. They have gone from a club which didn't have a lot of money to a club which suddenly has loads of it, bringing in top players.

"After Kenny Dalglish left, they brought in good coaches, but not a manager. It needs the Joe Mercer, Bill Nicholson or Dalglish magic to take it on and gel them together."

But Pat Crerand, who along with Kidd won the 1968 European Cup with United under the stewardship of Sir Matt Busby, insists his friend will come good after suffering so many setbacks this season.

"I know Brian very well and I'm very sorry that he's in the position he's in," Crerand said. "But I still think he'll be a success. I see the same qualities in Brian as Sir Matt - he knows the game, he gets on tremendously well with the players and he's a very good coach. I think he'll have to bite his lip and get on with it, and I'm sure they'll come straight out of the First Division next year."

Barcelona have more than trebled the allocation of seats for disabled Manchester United fans at the European Cup final against Bayern Munich on 26 May. The Spanish club have increased the number of disabled spaces available at the Nou Camp stadium from 13 to around 40 after the Sports Minister, Tony Banks, contacted Uefa's general secretary, Gerhard Aigner, about the size of the initial allocation.