WHAT NOW FOR RED ICONS?
New broom may sweep away the Class of 92
RYAN GIGGS has been at his only football club for so long it must have seemed at times as though his professional life was moving in slow motion. The last week, however, has seen his career thrown rather uncomfortably into fast forward.
It was only a week ago today that Giggs, a Manchester United man for more than two decades, told us his promotion to the position of interim manager had given him the proudest day of his life.
Seven days on and the 40-year-old is already having to contemplate the uncomfortable possibility of an immediate future outside the club.
Privately, United had warned this may happen. As reporteded in these pages last week, eek, Giggs’s position at Old ld Trafford was not to o be ring-fenced by the club. The assembly of the backroom staff for next season would solely be the prerogative of the incoming manager.
As that appointment nt moves closer — Louis uis van Gaal is set to be con-confirmed in the role nextt week k — so does the day of reckoning for Giggs. He has already had one meeting with United chief executive Ed Woodward.
Predictably, that summit ended without any guarantees. So Giggs, like the rest of us, waits for definitive news.
Van Gaal is preparing to bring a clutch of trusted lieutenants to Old Trafford as part of his coaching staff.
GIGGS is understood to be aware of this and it is this that will play a central role in his thinking. Already identified as a United manager of the future — his mentor Sir Alex Ferguson is his principal backer — Giggs very much wants to continue his development as a coach at Old Trafford.
Understandably, though, he will not do this at the expense of his own credibility or sense of selfworth. Having spent the best part of a season feeling as though he was on the periphery of David Moyes’ coaching team, Giggs does not want that to happen again.
He doesn’t want any job at United. He wants the right job.
‘Ryan doesn’t want to be a spare part in any set-up,’ said a source with good knowledge of the situation.
‘If he is there, he will want to be there as an integral part of a team. He doesn’t want to be there just because he iis called Ryan Giggs.
‘If he is offered a role he thinks is right then he will take it. If he doesn’t then he won’t.’ Giggs’ quandary, should it become one, is understandable. So too is United’s.
Installing Giggs and former team-mates Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Phil Neville as the men to ease the team through the final four games of the season was a sensible decision for practical and emotional reasons. Already it has done much to lift spirits at a club laid low by 10 months of hardship under the unfortunate Moyes.
Nevertheless, in doing that, United set in motion a predictable bandwagon that will only gather momentum if the team keep winning.
On the Stretford End, Giggs and his Class of 92 are already the popular choice for the job in the long-term. In the dressing room, meanwhile, support for him is resolute.
He will not get the job this time. That has been clear from the outset. But the prospect of four men who have played such an integral part in the club’s success turning and walking away completely now looms large.
Van Gaal is a coach known for his strength of mind and also for his inflexibility. He will understand the emotional appeal of Giggs. He will understand that offering a club icon a prominent role on his staff would represent sound PR.
He is not, however, the type of coach who will do it if he doesn’t think it will benefit him on the coaching field.
Some supporters will ask why United do not offer Van Gaal the job on the condition that he keeps Giggs — at least. Across town at Manchester City, for example, Brian Kidd has now worked as a coach under three managers.
Woodward, however, is adamant that United’s new manager is given carte blanche to do things his own way. The chief executive would very much like Giggs to be incorporated prominently in the set-up but it will not be allowed to become a sticking point in negotiations.
In some way or another, a line of continuity should remain. Neville — part of Moyes’s regime — is not expected to stay. Butt, though, is likely to return to his work with the Under 18s and Scholes may be given the opportunity to go with him. The only thing that may stand in the way of that is their pride.
This week the mood among the Class of 92 has darkened a little. They don’t like the uncertainty or the lack of clarity. Last week, walking along the touchline ahead of the game against Norwich, they were central figures in a fairytale narrative.
The reality of United’s new dawn — and their part in it — is rather less romantic.