John O'Shea to Sunderland: Goodbye to Manchester United's Mr. Adaptable

 

It has become the stock response. “Hahaha John O’Shea, that guy is awful” titters the particularly docile Chelsea fan.
Awful players don’t make in excess of 400 appearances in all competitions, during a 13-year tenure at the world’s biggest club. Awful players don’t represent their country 70 times.
Awful players are maligned, farmed out to the outer Hebrides to fulfill a lifetime of anonymity. New contracts aren’t the staple of the awful player’s diet.
Plucked from the bastion of the world’s finest talent that is Waterford Bohemians in Ireland and initiated in United’s own youth system way back in 1998, O’Shea has gone to become part of the Old Trafford furniture.
To put it into perspective, along with the evergreen Ryan Giggs and the curious Wes Brown, O’Shea is one of only three current Red’s that were part of the United setup during the treble winning '99 season.
Following his professional debut for United in 1999 against Aston Villa at Villa Park at the tender age of 18, O’Shea followed the now familiar loan route, for United young stars.
To feeder club Royal Antwerp and English division side Bournemouth.
Two years later, at the start of the 2002-03 season, O’Shea returned to his parent club and began to feature in Sir Alex Ferguson’s defensive plans.
The beauty of O’Shea during this early period—and a trend that has persisted to this day—was his adaptability, adept at playing anywhere across the back four as well as in central midfield, O’Shea became the go-to guy.
The following season, after the debacle surrounding Rio Ferdinand’s missed drug’s test and subsequent eight-month ban, it was O’Shea that Sir Alex called upon to steady the rocking ship.
The Ulsterman stepped into the breach and fulfilled the role of first choice centre-half for the majority of the '03/'04 season, that culminated in FA Cup final glory.
Following an indifferent campaign the following season, Newcastle were amongst the club’s heavily linked with the Irishman and O’Shea’s Old Trafford days looked to be numbered. However, the move eventually came to nothing.
The following season O’Shea again saw a sustained period of first-team action, filling in for the injured vice-captain Gary Neville.
Rational logic would purvey that even a man as adaptable as O’Shea would eventually test the boundaries of his malleability, yet following an emergency stint in goal as deputy for the injured Edwin van der Sar against Tottenham in February '07—United had already used all three subs—it appeared O’Shea’s boundaries weren’t confined to the rational.
A month after O’Shea played goalie came possibly his highlight as a Manchester United player as he scored an injury time winner against arch rivals Liverpool, that spawned the now infamous Gary Neville fist pumping celebration.
The goal was part of an amazing set of statistics for O’Shea in the '06/'07 season in which he possessed an 80 percent shot to goal ratio!

 

Incredibly in the '07/'08 season, in desperation to offset the damage caused by an injury ravaged forward line Ferguson started deploying the 6'3" O’Shea as a target man forward.This gave the Ulsterman the distinctive honour of becoming the first United player to play in every position for the club, a fact that was rewarded with a new contract up until the end of the 2011/2012 season.
In the following three season’s O’Shea featured regularly in the United first team deputising for injuries across the back line.
Amongst the then 28-year-old’s personal achievements were the only goal in the first leg of the 2009 Champion’s League semifinal against Arsenal and a performance in the precluding final in which he was cited by many as United’s best player.
The irony of O’Shea, however, is that the brilliant adaptability that helped him to amass those 400-plus United appearances is essentially the root cause that looks set to lead to his departure.
For in the whole time he has been a member of Sir Alex Ferguson’s roster he has never really been a first choice, the most brilliant form of cover yes but not an indispensable first choice cog.
Fast forward to today and it now appears that the writ could be sealed on O’Shea’s glorious United career. After an initial £12 million triple swoop for United players from Sunderland—of which O’Shea’s deal is said to be worth £3 million—the national dailies are reporting that O’Shea is on Wearside undergoing a medical.
The end of a 13-year chapter of the saga of John O’Shea looks set to close.

 

It is testament to O’Shea’s ability as a footballer that despite never truly maintaining first choice status he has managed to carve out such an illustrious career in the Theatre of Dreams. True United fan’s have and do recognise O’Shea’s invaluable contributions, and many I know feel saddened by the loss of a committed servant.
Yet if there is one thing that O’Shea’s United career to date has not brought the understated Irishman it is the cathartic feeling of preference, that you above all other’s are the manager’s first choice. Sunderland can offer him that.
So although it is with sadness that the United faithful will bid farewell to John O’Shea, it is with the knowledge that he goes to claim something Manchester United could never offer him, and that’s the very least he deserves.