Top 5 Retirements of the 2012/2013 Season

The 2012/2013 football season has seen a large number of big changes to the footballing landscape. It remains to be seen exactly how the changes will impact upon the Premier League next season, but one thing that’s for certain is that it’s sure going to be an exciting time, as now I think the title race will have been blown wide open once again.

In this article on Footy Blog we’ll take a look at some of the biggest retirements from the past season, and take a look to see what the changes might mean.

1. Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United

Ferguson is undoubtedly the biggest name to retire from football from the season past, being huge news all around the world. Rightly so too – he’s been majestic as manager of Manchester United for the past 26 years, and it’s going to be such a tough ask upon former Everton manager David Moyes. Moyes has of course been given the chance to take the reigns at Old Trafford, and many feel this to be a very wise choice.
It’s going to be a year of very transition at the club, and it’s clear that they aren’t the bookies favourites to retain the title for the 2013/2014 season. Moyes will be desperate to prove any of the doubters wrong, so it’ll be very interesting to see exactly how he manages with the pressure of the job come the start of the season.

sir alex ferguson

2. Paul Scholes, Manchester United

Following on from Manchester United supremo Sir Alex Ferguson comes the little ginger maestro Paul Scholes. Being his second time of retiring from the club, before coming back to help out last season, Scholes has been one of the best players of Ferguson’s tenure. An ever present, a real vital cog of the United side that accomplished so much. World football legends such as Xavi, Edgar Davids and Zinedine Zidane have all said, on separate occasions, that the best player they’ve ever played against has been Paul Scholes. The quiet, unstated Salford-born lad has been a legendary player, and it’ll be sad not to see him involved at all next season. True, he did have quite a bit-part involvement towards the tail end of the season gone, but he’ll still be missed. United have done well to fill his gap with Michael Carrick really coming to the fore, and Tom Cleverley starting to blossom too, and with Anderson and Kagawa David Moyes will be hopeful that he has enough of a creative influence within the centre of midfield.

paul scholes

3. Jamie Carragher, Liverpool

He won’t be happy appearing after 2 Man United legends, but Liverpool’s ever-present central defender Jamie Carragher has been a real idol ever since pulling on the famous red jersey. A local lad, he grew up supporting Everton but instead made it into the Liverpool side from a very young age. He may not be the fastest player or the quickest on the turn but his reading of the game has been immense from day one. His defending has always been top-notch, and although he’s not had so much influence on the pitch this season under Brendan Rogers, Rogers has recently stated how happy he’s been to have worked with such a consummate professional. And that’s what Carragher has been – he never gives up, he tries his best and he’s a role model for his team-mates. It seems certain that he’ll stay on with the club in some form of role, perhaps as a coach as he’s been taking his coaching badges in the past year or so. Someone like Carragher is such an important role model for the younger footballers around him, especially those of whom are involved in the Liverpool youth setup, so to have his experience and charismatic profile around the club even after his retirement would be something that Brendan Rodgers would be crazy to miss.

jamie carragher

4. Michael Owen, Stoke City

It seems sad for Michael Owen to bow out from the game in the manner in which he has done. He never really got a look in at Stoke, I think he’s had more of a career out of Twitter and football punditry then from actually kicking a ball on the pitch, which is slightly sad when you’re as talented as Owen. The ultimate goal-poacher, perhaps quite a similar footballer to Gary Lineker – both were poachers, strikers, English, and whom went abroad to Spain in search of silverware. To think of Michael Owen’s career you’d probably think firstly of that goal against Argentina in the World Cup Finals of 1998, and then you may also think of his time with Liverpool and then Real Madrid. To me he was at the peak of his powers during his time at Anfield, and he was idolised by the Kop. Unfortunately, due to later transfer decisions, he’s now hated due to his association to Manchester United. I’m not disputing that it’s a bad time for Owen to hang up his boots, but it just feels that his was a career that was perhaps hampered too often by injury. He was immensely talented, but after various injuries he never really amounted to the talent that was expected. Things went slightly downhill after his stay at Real Madrid, getting some nasty injuries during the stay at Newcastle. He obviously couldn’t help getting injured, but it’s still a shame to see Owen stepping away from the game without having accomplished as much as we’d hoped he could’ve as a fresh-faced teenager during the World Cup of ’98.

michael owen

5. Phil Neville, Everton

Carrying on the ex-Manchester United theme here (not on purpose, honestly), is another example of a footballer who’s had a career playing at the top level whilst being a role model for other footballers and youngsters too. Neville may not have been the greatest footballer of all time, but I feel that when you’re as hard working, dedicated and motivated as Phil has shown himself to be then talent isn’t necessarily the be-all end-all of the game. That’s not to say Phil wasn’t a good footballer, as his credentials obviously show he was – after all you don’t have such a lengthy career at Man United and then finishing at Everton as club captain without doing something right. Neville’s boots will probably be filled by the likes of Darron Gibson and Steven Pienaar at Everton, but his presence within the dressing room will be solely missed. If Moyes was to remain at the club then it would have been likely that Phil might’ve become a coach, or worked somewhere within the club in a non-playing role, but with Moyes moving onwards perhaps there isn’t such a vacancy any more – the new manager might want to bring in his own back-room staff after all. But I’m certain that where-ever Phil goes next, and he has stated that he’d like to be involved with coaching, then he’ll be another great success. He could even end up on the TV as a rival to brother Gary, who’s been doing such a sterling job as pundit on Sky Sports. Lets hope that if he does end up on the BBC on Match of the Day, he’ll inject some much needed youthfulness and insight into the game.

phil neville

By Matt

Matt is the owner and chief-editor of the Footy Blog, one of the UK's leading football news blogs.