Dennis Irwin was facing a European Axe as Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson was after a European Cup berth for his striker Mark Hughes. The Welshman was an assimilated player and because of that Ferguson had to drop one player from his squad amongst Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane, Peter Schmeichel or Irwin. With Lee Martin, Mike Phelan and Lee Sharpe back, Irwin was the most likely casualty.
Alex Ferguson said “We have to do better with our resources. Up until now, we have relied mainly on the same bunch to get us where we are and so far they have done fantastically. But its only September and it already feels as if its January with the number of games we have had. When you look at the calendar you see that Giggs has had 10 games already, plus an international. When he came back from Wales, you could see he was drained.”
