Worldwide, the Manchester United online community is buzzing about what Zlatan Ibrahimovic had to say in a wide-ranging exclusive with the Daily Mirror.
In the interview, Ibrahimovic slammed the Class of ’92 for their consistent criticisms of the current club status quo, said United should build around Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba going forward, and that fixating on the club’s golden era, when Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge, is inhibiting their progress. One member of the Class of ’92, Ryan Giggs, has returned fire on Zlatan.
“They are not there anymore,” the former United striker said in the interview that’s going viral worldwide right now.
“They are on TV and complaining all the time because they are not active in the club. If you want to work in the club, go and search for work in the club. So you cannot be on TV and always complaining and criticizing.”
The comments are most likely directed at Paul Scholes and Gary Neville, the two members of the Class of ’92 who have consistently been among the most vocal and most colorful critics of the club during the David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho eras.
Ibrahimovic probably felt that this was an opportune time to take aim at Scholes, given how he just ended his first ever managerial stint, and it lasted just 31 days with Oldham Athletic. This provided a bit of validation for those who don’t care for Scholes’ critiques of Mourinho and LVG, and believe in the “oh, let’s see you do better” concept.
As for Neville, he often makes a lot of salient points, but given his job as a television pundit and media personality, he also likes to engage in hyperbole to stir up controversy and with it, ratings and social media engagements. So Ibrahimovic does have a point.
However, Ryan Giggs also has a point; or two. And he is probably the overall winner in this argument. Zlatan only made 33 appearances for the club while Giggs, Scholes, the Neville brothers and the rest of the Class of ’92 helped build the foundation for the club’s most productive and successful period.
And as Giggs points out, there is a member of that famed youth academy class working directly for the team right now- Nicky Butt is the club’s current youth team coach.
“Only Nicky (Butt) is connected with the club now, but when you play over 2000 games between us, we are going to have an opinion,” said Giggs ahead of the Welsh National Team’s international friendly against Trinidad and Tobago.
“Sometimes it’s positive, sometimes negative, but it doesn’t have an effect on results. We are supporters. That’s what football is about, having different opinions.”
Giggs, the current Wales boss, then dropped some sarcasm on the egomaniacal Swede: “But he [Ibrahimovic] obviously knows more about the club than us.”
Given how much Ibrahimovic loves attention being placed on himself, this is probably not over. One might expect him to respond to this in some way.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.