ONE of the oldest adages in football remarks about how class is permanent.
And that sentiment was uttered by many Irish football fans after seeing a photo of modern-day Paul McGrath and Kevin Moran.
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Paul, 64, shared a pic of the former centre-half partners arm in arm.
It was lapped up on social media with followers of the Aston Villa great en masse commenting about how they’ve aged like a fine wine.
Neil wrote: “Great to see two guys looking so well! Sending best wishes.”
Similarly, Padraig reckoned: “Looking in great shape the pair of ye. Could still do a job for many a team.”
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Finally, Dermot added: “Great pic, the two lads looking well.”
Of course he and Moran, 68, also overlapped as teammates at Man United from 1982-1988.
While McGrath is often the second or third if not the first name on everyone’s lips when asked to name Ireland’s greatest-ever footballer, the brilliance of Moran’s career is often overlooked.
He somehow juggled playing for The Red Devils over 230 times with routinely hopping back on the ferry home so that he could star for Dublin’s great GAA side of the 1970s/1980s under Kevin Heffernan.
In May 2023 his dual sporting life was the subject of an RTE documentary entitled Codebreaker.
In it, McGrath laid out just how brilliant of a partner Moran was in the heart of the Irish defence.
He said: “Kevin was always shouting at someone or else he was going into a challenge where you weren’t sure if he was going to come out of (in one piece).
“He made the rest of us, not as brave as him, but braver.”
Earlier in the broadcast the 1993 PFA Players’ Player of the Year had made a similar comment while a compilation of his most full-blooded sliding tackles was played.
McGrath laughed: “Watching the way he’d go into tackles I’d be thinking ‘ooft, I don’t think I’ll be getting involved like that.’
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“The injuries I thought I’d leave to him!”
The pair were thick as thieves at Old Trafford as they both reminisced on their many memorable nights out together.
In that case, Moran’s more understated status within the squad compared to the star trio of Bryan Robson, Norman Whiteside and McGrath did work in his favour.
The quartet all laughed about how he never got pegged with the party boy reputation to the same extent that they did.
Finally in the closing montage, McGrath touchingly added: “I love him to death actually to be honest.”
