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Time to go, Giggs — it’s not the same United anymore

Ryan Giggs would be the manager of Manchester United right now had he not played until he was 40. That is not my view, but one expressed by Alex Ferguson.

Ryan Giggs wanted to take over from Louis van Gaal, but with Manchester United going for Hollywood over home-grown, he may now decide to cut his management teeth elsewhere. Photo: Getty Images

Ryan Giggs wanted to take over from Louis van Gaal, but with Manchester United going for Hollywood over home-grown, he may now decide to cut his management teeth elsewhere. Photo: Getty Images

Ryan Giggs would be the manager of Manchester United right now had he not played until he was 40. That is not my view, but one expressed by Alex Ferguson.

“Say he had retired at 35, quite likely I would have made him my assistant and quite likely he could have moved straight into the job with the experience of being an assistant manager to me,” said Ferguson.

When told what his old manager had said about him, Giggs was incredulous. “He said that?” he eventually uttered.

Maybe Ferguson was being whimsical or fondly charitable. Or more likely, he meant it.

Either way, Giggs is not the United manager, and with the appointment of Jose Mourinho, the dynamic of the club has changed for the 42-year-old, possibly forever.

It means it is time for Giggs to cut his ties and look elsewhere. The fact is he has not got the job he wanted, right now, and his retention would appear to be for show; a sop almost.

Having worked under David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, it does not really make sense for him to stick around and work under a third manager in Mourinho, especially if the role offered is a diluted one, as appears to be the case, whatever the arguments may be for learning from such a successful coach.

For any employee, there comes a moment when you have been overlooked and need to strike out on your own. Giggs wanted the United manager’s job, but the club has gone for Hollywood over home-grown. They did not have the faith or the courage to back him.

Giggs looked like the long-term proposition, the man most likely to create a new dynasty — if he does have the potential to be a good manager (and only those who work closely with him will know that) — but United have gone in another direction.

Giggs could still return if he succeeds elsewhere, but history is littered with former players who felt they could do a job at another club before going back. In truth, it very rarely happens.

It is also rare — in English football in particular — for a club to promote from within. The days of the Anfield boot room are long gone. Now, something even greater than that institution will leave United, should Giggs make the break after 28 years and reject the offer to stay on.

Nicky Butt is the head of United’s academy, but the dream of the Class of ’92 — Giggs, Butt, the Neville brothers, Gary and Phil, Paul Scholes, and even David Beckham — being at the heart of United, possibly with two or three of them forming the management team — appears further away than ever. That fact is all the more resonant because Giggs was their unofficial leader.

Beckham had backed Giggs as the next United manager, Phil Neville said Mourinho should do everything to keep him (but that is not the Portuguese’s style) and Van Gaal had anointed him as his successor at a Q&A with executive season ticket holders in September — although obviously that suited his purposes.

Crucially, a number of senior players also wanted Giggs to take over because they believed he had a better feel for the club than Mourinho.

There was certainly a compelling argument that, after Moyes and the turgid Van Gaal years, Giggs represented someone who could restore United’s traditional identity and represent a beacon of hope for the future.

The holder of the club’s appearance record (963 matches), and their most successful player ever, had grown frustrated by what had happened in the past three years.

It does not take much digging to discover that Giggs was not particularly enamoured with Van Gaal’s management or style of football.

At times, he has looked a picture of frustration on the bench, while it was instructive to see him so animated on the touchline during the FA Cup final in what was already being touted as Van Gaal’s final game.

United were never going to sack Giggs. Unlike Van Gaal and his Dutch coaching staff, he was never going to get the call to say his services were no longer required.

Instead, he faces the reality of having to either resign or accept a diminished role under Mourinho, whose “first” assistants will be his long-term associates Rui Faria and Silvino Louro.

It is said that Mourinho wants to keep Giggs, but the truth is he is probably not that fussed whether the Welshman walks. He does not need someone to tell him about United nor to act as a link to the dressing room and the stands, although he will certainly not oppose a former player sitting on the bench. At Real Madrid, he encouraged Zinedine Zidane to get more involved. He is now their head coach.

Maybe Giggs will reflect on that and on how Zidane spent seven years in the background, accepting various roles, before he got the top job. Maybe he will also reflect on how his friend Gary Neville crashed at Valencia in his first management job and maybe he will decide it is better the Red Devil he knows.

But Mourinho’s appointment means United are moving more radically in a different direction than they did under Moyes or Van Gaal.

The past should not be allowed to dictate the future. Despite Mourinho’s stellar achievements, that is a dangerous thought for United. In Giggs’ case, it is also a sad one. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jason Burt is the Daily Telegraph’s chief football correspondent

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