Giggs: the pressure on Rooney is 'massive'

(GETTY IMAGES)

Ryan Giggs yesterday mounted a trenchant defence of Wayne Rooney in the face of Kevin Keegan's outspoken criticism of the player, insisting that his team-mate had not invited media scrutiny of his personal life by selling his wedding photographs, as Keegan has suggested, and that Manchester United are not dependent upon him.

The estrangement between Sir Alex Ferguson and those who write on United is perhaps greater than ever following the reporting of Keegan's weekend comments, with the manager yesterday cancelling a second successive weekly press conference. Giggs seemed unaware of Keegan's comments when asked about them, but he rejected the former Newcastle United manager's argument. "It doesn't matter whether you sell your wedding photos or not," Giggs said. "The pressure footballers have got under both on and off the pitch has got bigger and if he didn't sell his wedding photos I think still people would be following him and giving him stick." The 36-year-old was speaking at the launch of his book Ryan Giggs, My Life Story, written in collaboration with the writer and regular Independent contributor Ivan Ponting. Touching on the issue of media scrutiny, Giggs reflects in the book that it was at the tender age of 15, when selected for England Schoolboys, that he earned a soubriquet as the "new George Best." "[But] the media exposure didn't happen overnight but built up gradually and I just got used to it," he writes.

It is a different story for Rooney, he reflected yesterday. "It has changed. It's massive, its not just sportswriters, it's front pages, gossip magazines and maybe when I first got into the team you had the odd magazine. My missus sometimes brings home 10 magazines or gossip magazines which are just full of rubbish and you just have footballers in them. That wouldn't have happened 10 years ago, the exposure there is."

Ferguson last week disclosed his anxiety about Rooney's ability to deal with the intensity of scrutiny on him and the striker misses United's visit to Sunderland tomorrow because of an ankle injury which, perhaps mercifully, removes him from the line of fire. Yet Giggs, unlike the 24-year-old, had to contend with boos from Old Trafford season ticket holders when out of form and substituted in United's 1-1 League Cup semi-final draw with Blackburn in 2002.

"I've had it a few times. It's not nice," Giggs said. "[Those periods] helped me when I was younger. You're 17, 18, or 19 – everything is going brilliantly and then you hit a bit of bad form. They want to know who you are going out with; they want to know about your family history. You get thick skin and it helps you in the long run."

Giggs, who has played with Rooney for six years, has no fear for him. "No. He is a quality player. We can't rely on him this season as we could last season. Wayne, you know for a fact, will start scoring goals sooner rather than later."

Neither does he perceive a dip in confidence. "When you are playing at United, you are there to be shot down. All you need is to lose a bit of form or you have a few injuries. I don't see a confidence issue. It is not a worry, for Wayne or United as a team. We have never tried to rely on one player. Hopefully that will be the case this year."

Rio Ferdinand, another player who has struggled to reassert himself, said after a commanding return in United's 1-0 in Valencia that he is desperate for successive games. "I just want a run of games now. It is what I love doing, it is what I enjoy doing more than anything else and I'm at my happiest when I am on a football pitch. So that [a run of games] would be nice," he said.

Ryan Giggs: My Life, My Story. Headline £20.00