Aaron Kernan’s retirement at 30 years of age disappointed many, including Joe Brolly. But it wasn’t because the Armagh great was some kind of indentured slave. It was just time to re-prioritise his life.

Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers rolled back the years tonight as they lined up together in a ’Class of 92 and friends’ XI for a friendly against Salford City, the non-league outfit they bought between them this year.

Manchester United fans are in for a treat this Christmas when a documentary chronicling perhaps the club’s greatest-ever youth team is released.

STEVE BRUCE is keeping his fingers crossed that Jordan Henderson and David Meyler can do for Sunderland what Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes have done for Manchester United.

THE emergence of a new generation, as any discerning grandparent will confirm, is what keeps the previous ones going.