Imogen thomas who is the player

His scoring record in the Champions League has gone for 11 consecutive seasons, bettered only by Raul. He also holds the most appearances for Manchester United in history, not to mention his brilliant international career albeit with a team that struggles to qualify for major tournaments. Enough of the stats and records, though. Ryan Giggs is quite simply a phenomenal footballer.

As the most decorated player in English footballing history, there can be absolutely no doubt that he deserves respect. Most Manchester United fans will rate him up there with George Best and Bobby Charlton, and there's no denying his name has gone down in history.

The Imogen Thomas scandal is a whole new matter, though. The midfielder was eventually named as the "top Premier League footballer" who had taken out a super injunction to stop details of his affair with the former reality TV star.

Although his name had already been appearing on Twitter and around the web beforehand, there had been no confirmation by any of the top officials involved. It didn't help his case in the slightest that Giggs attempted to sue a number of Twitter accounts and the company itself for revealing his name. In fact, it damaged his public appearance even more.

Scandals like this in the past with John Terry and Ashley Cole have both seen public opinion of the players drop hugely, and now Ryan Giggs is at risk of the very same thing. However, as was evidenced by the World Cup last year, just because a player has had personal problems it doesn't mean they can't play football well.

Ashley Cole was rated as the best England player from a poor World Cup, and earned much respect as a player, even if he's still rejected as a person. As mentioned earlier, Ryan Giggs is rated on a par by most fans with George Best in terms of his career and legacy. The same George Best that had longstanding drink problems.

While these names associated with hookers hardly raise an eyebrow, the one of Giggs does raise a few. The question to be asked is would this carefree episode of Giggs diminish his status as an esteemed, legendary player?

Footballers should be socially responsible. Their deeds, which can influence the impressionable youngsters, are closely followed by many. So it's the moral responsibility of the footballers to lead a life that inculcates rich values into younger generation. In this day and age, footballers have nothing short of celebrity status.

With popularity comes responsibility. They simply can't dally with hookers and later hide beneath the wafer-thin protective shield of super-injunction before spilling the beans to media and apologising. That's the most reckless mistake a footballer can commit to tarnish his reputation. Even a player of the stature of Giggs is not safe. Just to play devil's advocate, I can argue that the private life of footballers shouldn't be of any concern if their football does the talking.

Footballers shouldn't be treated as cult heroes. They shouldn't be worshipped as demi-gods. What matters is football and, as long as these players perform, their private life shouldn't be of anyone's concern.

It's the decision of the public to make these footballers a role model. Controversy over gagging orders has grown since the names of several celebrities claimed to have taken out injunctions to protect their privacy began circulating on Twitter.

Lawyers representing the footballer also told Eady that they wanted to establish whether an injunction protecting his identity had been breached by Sun employees. They requested a search of Sun employees' email accounts and text messages and said they also wanted to see emails and texts sent by former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, who is now a Sun columnist, relating to the injunction.

Lawyers for the Sun opposed the application, saying it was "unnecessary", "unprecedented", "disproportionate" and a "fishing expedition". The judge reserved judgment on the application and said he would announce his decision later. Thomas was also in court to try to have the ban on naming the player lifted, in conjunction with lawyers acting for the Sun newspaper.

Eady's ruling was so harsh some lawyers argued it could amount to the death of the tabloid "kiss and tell". Evidence put before Eady last month by the footballer accused Thomas of asking for money, a signed football shirt and match tickets. Thomas and the Premiership player met four times between September and December last year, according to the footballer's evidence.

She then contacted him by text in March, which led him to conclude she was thinking of selling her story, according to the judge's summary. The footballer agreed to meet her "in a hotel where he was staying" in April.