OWEN!!!
If you're a Manchester United Fan, or just an Owen Hargreaves fan, you have to read this:
Manchester sees the caring side of United's midfield tough guy
By MATT LAWTON - More by this author » Last updated at 22:37pm on 21st September 2007
Not everyone in Manchester supports United, as Owen Hargreaves discovers when he offers a cup of coffee to a man in a waiting room at the Christie Hospital.
"No thank you," he mutters. "I'm a City fan." Others are more excited. Mary Eileen Swift shuffles across the ward in her dressing gown to grab an autograph and then disappears down the corridor with a spring in her step.
For a moment she forgets her gruelling battle against breast cancer; forgets that she has lost her hair to the traumatic effects of chemotherapy.
Much of the community work footballers do goes unnoticed in this modern era of the millionaire superstar. Take Roy Keane.
It was only on this visit to Europe's leading cancer hospital that United's director of communications revealed how the Irishman would take academy players to a young offenders' institution.
"He did it off his own bat and he saw it as something he could do as club captain," says Phil Townsend. "He'd borrow a minibus and drive them all down there."
Hargreaves is at The Christie as part of a joint venture between United and the Premier League.
The hospital has become one of United's official charity partners, while the Premier League have just launched their "Creating Chances" initiative.
In Hargreaves, they have the perfect ambassador. An intelligent, articulate, sensitive young man who is as natural with the patients as he is in that midfield holding role for club and country.
He brings a brief smile to grief-stricken faces. To the faces of a family who are watching a loved one die.
Harold never knew Hargreaves was there this week but his wife and his daughter welcomed the attention. Harold passed away the next day. He was 56.
"My grandfather, Henry, died of cancer on the day of my first England game," says Hargreaves as he reflects on his tour of the hospital. "I remember my mum ringing me. I could tell in her voice that something had happened.
"I remember visiting him in hospital. It was the same vibe as today. The same smells. He'd lived with us for 25 years. He moved to Canada from Bolton with my parents.
"He had a massive influence on me. He was the reason my dad got into football and the reason I then got into football.
"That's the thing about cancer. It can touch anyone: kids, old people. That's the scary thing. I know what it's like to be a relative. That feeling that there's nothing you can really do. It's tough."
The conversation moves rather awkwardly to football: the first mention of an injury that forced him to miss those England games against Israel and Russia creating a mutual sense of embarrassment.
An injury, dare it be said, he hopes to recover from in time for tomorrow's Premier League encounter with Chelsea.
He reflects on England's most recent performances with candour and a sense of perspective that Steve McClaren no doubt shares.
Have England suddenly stumbled across a team that can win a major tournament? Have they hell, says the one England player who emerged from the last World Cup with any real credit.
"We are expected to win those games," he says. "We did a very good job against Israel and Russia: two clean sheets.
"But we need to look at the bigger picture, look at when we are playing Brazil and Argentina and ask ourselves if we are going to be successful with that same team or that same formation.
"The teams you meet in the major tournaments are the best in the world. There are no Israels, or possibly even a Russia. It's about balance, and we have to find it, because doing well in a major tournament is not easy, as we know.
"The expectation is high because we have great individual players and we need to use the players at our disposal. We have Wayne Rooney to come back and I can't imagine an England team without Wayne Rooney.
"Every game is different. Estonia at home next month will be relatively comfortable, while Russia away will be extremely difficult.
"We have great options. Aaron Lennon has just come back. David Beckham should be back. Frank Lampard is one of the best midfielders in the world.
"Any time you have world-class players in your squad, you'd like to find a way to get them on the pitch."
The trip to Moscow concerns Hargreaves, not least because of the decision to play on a plastic pitch. He watched his former Bayern Munich team-mates play there in the Champions League last season - he missed the game with a broken leg - and his report is not encouraging.
"It will worry the players, and not just because of the bounce of the ball," he says.
"There's the added risk of injury. It's not healthy, the amount we play these days, but surfaces like that won't help either. I'm sure the people who made the decision to play the game there are not football players."
Hargreaves has no such complaints at Old Trafford. "I've been impressed with everything at Manchester United," he says.
"It's bigger than I anticipated, and better organised than Bayern. There's more attention to detail, and there's a lot more banter in the dressing room.
"We play music before a game, which is something you'd never do in Germany.
"I've never known a dressing room that is more together and I think that's down to players like Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville. They are very humble. Good guys."
The softer side of Sir Alex Ferguson has also taken him by surprise. "He's been fabulous," says Hargreaves.
"One of the first times I saw him he just came over, put his arm around me and asked me how I was doing. I don't think I'd ever had a manager do that to me in my life."
And it was greatly appreciated.
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Everything about that article made me go AWWWW! It's wonderful that he's spending time with the Cancer Patients at the hospital. It is absolutely spot on, a lot of the charity work that footballers do goes unnoticed. Nobody wants to read about it, they'd prefer to read about some scandal instead.
That City fan made me laugh. Poor Owen, getting caught in the middle of the local rivalry.
Amazing of Keano too. My admiration for him just went up by a few notches.
Loved Owen's comments on the English NT's performance. I thought he was spot on. And the whole bit about Fergie putting him arm around him, and the United dressing room, just lovely.
Get well soon, love. I want to see you in that shirt again!