O'Shea the man for all seasons
John O'Shea's presence in the Champions League final is just reward for years of perseverance
John O'Shea celebrates his goal against Derby County in the League Cup in January
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When you consider the extraordinary resilience that now marks his career -- and which has provided him with such a potent chance to ambush another great occasion here tomorrow night -- it is maybe no surprise that one of John O'Shea's favourite relaxations is to be found in the stadium of rugby league club Warrington.
It is far from sport's grandest arena, a modest, custom-built structure to accommodate a modest, albeit passionate crowd, and certainly nothing to compare with Manchester United's Theatre of Dreams or the scene of the Champions League final, Stadio Olimpico.
But then O'Shea isn't looking for pomp or vain glory when he goes along to cheer his adopted Wolves team passing the oval ball and making man-on-man hits of improbable force.
O'Shea is reminding himself of the value of exceptional fortitude.
splintered
It has certainly served him well in some times of splintered hope and ambition that could easily have been crushed when a whole series of expensive United signings -- men like Rio Ferdinand, Gabriel Heinze, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and the Brazilian Da Silva boys -- came along with not only their own formidable virtues but also the reproach that they would be filling a space, or any number of them, that once seemed the secure terrain of the big man from Waterford.
That was especially true in the season of 2002/03 when O'Shea, at the age of 22, had moved so purposefully and skilfully towards making himself a first-team regular.
He played with great aplomb in the Champions League quarter-final against a Real Madrid side far superior to the current outfit. O'Shea was confronted by the great Luis Figo, but apparently no-one told him he was facing one of the great wingers of his generation; had someone done so he might not have been tempted to pull off an outrageous nutmeg.
O'Shea was good and, for some of his warmest admirers then, exceptionally so. Those admirers included Alex Ferguson, who marvelled at both the lad's poise and versatility, a factor which announced itself with superb force when Ferdinand was suspended for failing to take a drugs test.
O'Shea, it seemed, could do almost anything and, in the course of time, indeed everything, when he showed a knack for scoring timely goals, most valuably when he made a vital contribution to the United title drive of 2007 by hooking home the injury-time winner of a war of attrition at Anfield.
O'Shea could play full-back on either flank, he could fill in at the centre of defence, and operate comfortably at the back of midfield. For some old judges he was the most impressive defender-midfielder since the days of Paul Madeley of Leeds United, who was once described as a Rolls Royce whose engine fell out only within shooting distance of goal.
O'Shea's doesn't, which means that a modest wager on his scoring the first goal tomorrow night, at 33/1, will surely not strike some bold spirits as the last word in outrageous speculation.
Of course, quite a lot happened between the majesty of the young O'Shea and last week's confirmation by Ferguson that he had earned a confirmed starting place against Barcelona at the Stadio Olimpico.
Not many football men carry their sentimental baggage as lightly as Ferguson -- just ask David Beckham, Roy Keane or Ruud van Nistelrooy -- but then nor is he in the habit of ignoring a consistent and substantial contribution.
"John has put in some outstanding performances on the way to the final and he deserves to be told that he will start the game," said the Scot. From Ferguson that was an endorsement that O'Shea, whatever happens against Barca, is entitled to weigh in gold.
Why? Because at the age of 28, and on what many world-weary, old-before-their-time pros would assess as the downside of their careers, O'Shea has been singled out for extraordinary distinction by the most successful manager in the history of English football.
O'Shea had the chance to drift away from Old Trafford into the handsomely rewarded margins of football life that exist in the shadows of the Big Four.
He could have been a seen-it-all, done-most-of-it, doyen in somewhere like Newcastle or West Brom. He could have accepted the damning verdict of his judgemental compatriot Keane, he could have luxuriated in the big rewards for limited achievement. But no, he stayed and he fought. He found more than a spark of that old ambition and conviction and then something quite magical happened.
He became a first-team player again, in his heart and in his mind and in his performance. He nailed the goal that separated United from a night of absolute frustration when they out-played Arsenal so handsomely in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final at Old Trafford.
He played with a concentrated excellence that Ferguson had noted throughout the campaign and it was probably then that O'Shea, deep down, sensed that he had travelled all the way back from the verdict of Keane: the one that said that he had become a pampered, self-satisfied fellow traveller of football glory.
Here tomorrow night he will be anything but that. He will be a pro who remembered, just a little before it was too late, that you have to fight all the way to the football sunlight.
- James Lawton in Rome
