Being the fools we are, we got suckered in by a bloke on Twitter suggesting Denis Irwin wasn’t very good. There’s a lot we can ignore in Elon’s hell pit, but not that…
“He’s a f***ing great player! Youse are all f***ing idiots.”
Sir Alex Ferguson was talking about Premier League flop Juan Sebastian Veron so the former Manchester United manager would surely go in even harder if he was privy to some of the garbage being spouted about another of his favourites, Denis Irwin, in the last day or two.
Fergie rated Irwin so highly that, of all of the greats he managed at Old Trafford, it was the former full-back who was the first name and the only one inked on the team-sheet for his greatest XI. Not Cantona, Robson, Keane, Giggs or Rooney, but a £650,000 full-back bought from Oldham.
“Honestly, I would say Denis Irwin would be the one certainty to get in the team.”
So it’s a little odd that Irwin has been omitted from the latest Premier League Hall of Fame shortlist. Not that it would bother the Irishman. Nor would the some of the views thrust forth in the subsequent debate. Like this one…
Neville on a wind up. Irwin wouldn’t stand a chance under a Klopp or Pep…having to defend, attack, create and assist, sorry but none better than Robbo or Trent.
— Mas Patel (@maspatel01) March 30, 2023
A scalding take, that. One dripping with club and recency biases, and really, we should know better than to react. But Gary Neville couldn’t let it lie and amid the bleak, barren wilderness of the last knockings of an international break, we’ve little better to do.
‘Defend, attack, create and assist…’ Irwin fit the brief of the modern full-back outlined above arguably better than anyone currently doing it. Irwin is the full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold ought to aspire towards.
That isn’t to denigrate the Liverpool defender. Alexander-Arnold has his qualities, some of which are unmatched in the Premier League. But he very clearly has his weaknesses. Irwin had none.
‘Eight-out-of-ten Denis’ was what Ferguson called him, and both Neville and Roy Keane have referenced that number in relation to the sheer, relentless consistency of their former team-mate. Regardless of Alexander-Arnold’s better traits, even the staunchest, most blinkered Liverpool fan couldn’t reason that he has mastered the art of consistency.
Such stability and reliability was perhaps the only remarkable thing about Irwin. And maybe that’s why, as time has…
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