Former Chelsea star Gabriele Ambrosetti reveals comparisons to Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs did not make sense to him back in 1999.
Gianluca Vialli was Chelsea manager at the time and he called Ambrosetti the “Italian Ryan Giggs,” which is laughable considering he never won a league title in his career. Giggs won the Premier League 13 times.
Ambrosetti admits they played in similar positions, but agrees that the comparisons were way off.
Speaking to The Athletic about the bold comparison, he said: “I said, ‘Thank you, but Giggs? He is different to me!’
“Luca explained he did it to help me, to give me motivation. But I didn’t need motivation. I was 26 and at one of the biggest clubs in the world.
“To compare Gabriele Ambrosetti with Ryan Giggs is one of the biggest mistakes someone can do.
“I’m not saying I wasn’t a good player, but Ryan Giggs is an icon. The position we played was similar, but that’s it.
“Were we similar in other ways? No chance! I wasn’t the only one. I have never seen another player like him.”
This comes after former Birmingham City and Sheffield United midfielder Curtis Woodhouse reckoned Giggs was an “unbelievably overrated” player. An incredible statement to make about someone who won 13 Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups and two Champions League in his time at Old Trafford.
Ryan Giggs another unbelievably overrated Manchester United player. Outstanding longevity but in a team that dominated for years and were a free scoring machine his statistics for goals and assists is awful. Another Manchester United myth, good player, never anything more
— Curtis Woodhouse (@curtiswoodhous8) May 23, 2020
Abrosetti added: “Ryan was a great player and special to me. I was really surprised he never won a Ballon d’Or.
“Giggs is like George Best. He was one of the best players in the world. In his position, he was the best ever. No discussion.
“If you were to pick an all-time world XI, Giggs would be in it the same way as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
“Luca’s comments didn’t help me. They put a lot of pressure on me. Every mistake I made at Chelsea, people would say, ‘Oh no, Giggs wouldn’t do that’.
“Look, Luca trusted me but you can’t compare Giggs with anyone else back then or even now. I was under pressure all the time.
“The crowd had high expectations of me but they had expectations I was never going to be able to meet for sure.”
The Welshman is the most decorated footballer in English football history, so of course he will forever go down as one of the best to play the game.
Twitter has many hot takes on why Giggs was overrated, using statistics that were completely foreign to football fans for the most part of his playing career, but he wasn’t a mainstay in Sir Alex Ferguson’s teams by chance.
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