When Ryan Giggs won a record ninth league championship medal last season, defenders across the country must have been living in hope that the veteran Manchester United winger would finally decide to call it a day and hang up his boots, but the hunger that has helped him to become the most decorated player in English football shows no signs of abating.

Giggs is 34 in November, but as he talked yesterday of a desire not only to win an unprecedented tenth Premier League title this season, but an eleventh also, it seemed fair to wonder how much longer the Herculean Welshman believes he can go on for.

Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, may have spent a projected £37.7 million recruiting Nani and An-derson, the respective Portugal and Brazil forwards, in the summer, but the man they hope one day to replace is not ready to fade into the background just yet.

“It would be nice to get to ten [league titles], but it would be nicer to get to 11,” Giggs, who is expected to extend his contract by another 12 months, which will tie him to United until the end of next season, said. “I don’t want to be greedy, but that’s my shirt number, so that’s what I’m aiming for.

“Over the last two or three years the manager has bought young players as he looks to the future, which is something you’ve got to do at this club. Myself, Scholesy [Paul Scholes], Nev [Gary Neville], we’ll not play for ever. We needed to bring the age of the team down and we’ve done that, but at the moment we’ve got a good mixture of experience and young players. Eventually these young players will be the future of United. The club never stands still and never will.”

After an unconvincing start to the season, back-to-back 1-0 wins at home to Tottenham Hotspur and Sunderland have given United’s league position a healthier look, but while Giggs is expecting one of the toughest campaigns yet, he is convinced that the champions have the quality needed to retain their title. “It is probably a little harder to defend [the title] because everybody wants to beat the champions,” Giggs said.

“There is that extra pressure, and there’s also extra hunger from the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal because they haven’t won it the season before. But if you have won it, the players have that hunger to do it again. And if the players who won it last year have got that same hunger, then we’ve got a great chance.”

United trail Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea by two points and Giggs cannot see a challenge coming from anywhere but those three teams. The winger sat out the Sunderland game with a hamstring problem but is expected to return against Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday week, along with Cristiano Ronaldo, who has missed the past three matches through suspension. Wayne Rooney will undergo another scan on his foot this week, but the England forward is likely to be missing for another three weeks or so yet.

In the longer term, United will also be without Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who has retired after failing to recover from a recurring knee injury, though, like Giggs, Ferguson has no intention of going anywhere. The manager said yesterday that he had no idea when he is going to retire, but he has a firm belief on who should succeed him. “I have a great assistant in Carlos Quei-roz. I think he will be a strong candidate,” he said.

For now, the pair will welcome the return of Giggs and Ronaldo, coupled with the reemergence of Louis Saha, who scored the only goal against Sunderland. Giggs is unconcerned by the team’s recent troubles in front of goal and says that the most important aspect is being strong defensively. “Because of the attacking options we’ve got we’ll always create chances,” he said. “If we can keep clean sheets, we’ve always got a chance.”