The weekend stories that Ryan Giggs will consider leaving Manchester United if Jose Mourinho is appointed manager in the summer should present the club with an opportunity, not a problem.
“The dilemma for Giggs,” one report stated, “is that he knows he will only get one shot at managing United and if he leaves now and fails at his next club it could ruin his chances of one day landing his dream job.”
This is, indeed, a dilemma for Giggs, but it shouldn’t be a dilemma for Manchester United. In fact, when it is put as baldly as that, it would appear to be the opposite of a dilemma: why should they appoint a man who knows that actual exposure to management might ruin his attempt to become manager of Manchester United?
United should be relaxed at the prospect of losing Giggs whatever they decide to do in the summer, but his candidacy is an example of how directionless they have become. Their repeated failures in the transfer market continued on Tuesday when it was announced that Renato Sanches, a reported target for United, would be joining Bayern Munich.
Welcome to #FCBayern, Renato #Sanches! Read more on our latest signing here: https://t.co/mGDsqjExxu #MiaSanMia pic.twitter.com/bGuinoFOyl
— FC Bayern Munich (@FCBayernEN) May 10, 2016
They will, presumably, step up their pursuit of Ronaldo, Neymar and Gareth Bale to compensate, demonstrating that their transfer policy seems to be as clear-eyed as their approach to hiring a manager.
United under Ed Woodward can sometimes appear to be at the mercy of those who know exactly what they want, and this may explain the rise of Giggs, who has seemingly become the only alternative to Jose Mourinho if they decide to sack Louis Van Gaal this summer.
Sometimes it seems that even managing Manchester United might not be enough for Giggs. Earlier this year it was reported that he wouldn’t be prepared to step in as a caretaker manager again if Van Gaal was dismissed.
Certainly Giggs seems to suspect that if Mourinho arrives there will be no place for him at the new Manchester United, no matter how many times it is suggested that Mourinho will adhere to the great traditions of the club.
He must also be applauded for reaching this stage with such assurance, despite having done so little in management.
United may have planned for Alex Ferguson’s departure – as he was 71 when he retired it would have made sense – but their plans, whatever they were, have been undone by the nuisance of reality.
David Moyes couldn’t last a season, while Van Gaal has spent the last half of this campaign under threat, even if he may now be preparing for a glorious finale.
There has been no time for a long-term plan, not when so many have come to believe Mourinho is the solution. United may want to demonstrate that they are not a sacking club, but the truth is they were, like all the others, always a sacking club, just one which had no overwhelming reason to sack their manager for 27 years.
United, for some reason, appear to have limited themselves to two options if Van Gaal goes, which he probably should no matter what happens.
This could be seen as evidence of clear thinking if it weren’t for the suggestion that one of the options is Giggs, a man whose credentials haven’t been diminished despite being part of the coaching staff during the bleak years since Alex Ferguson’s departure.
Giggs’ fine ideas for the future of Manchester United – which tend to hark back to the past -should not be enough to make him a candidate.
When he was appointed caretaker after David Moyes’ sacking, Giggs said he would return to the attacking traditions he was brought up on as a Manchester United player.
“The team will play with my philosophy and that is the Manchester United philosophy,’ he added. “I have been here all my life. I want them to play with speed, tempo, be brave, show imagination. They are all the things I expect from a Manchester United player. I want to bring the positivity back.”
Nobody could disagree with these abstract ideas forming part of anybody’s philosophy, but it would be more compelling if there was any evidence that Giggs could shape a team to exhibit these fine concepts.
To remind people of those fine traditions, Giggs had Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes alongside him on the bench. Scholes has been a morose presence on television this season, calling for a return to the ideas that made Manchester United great and he has presumably communicated these views to Giggs in person as well.
But United have played the Van Gaal way, not the Ryan Giggs way, and maybe it would be unfair to judge him on the basis of his time on the coaching staff under Moyes and Van Gaal.
They are men who were always going to do things their own way, no matter how many times Giggs tried to intervene on the sideline and mutter about traditions.
Yet when the plan was hatched that he would be the long-term successor to Van Gaal, it was presumably envisaged that Giggs would take over a side which was successful once again, not struggling to qualify for the Champions League for the second time in three seasons.
“Results are all that matter now,” Chris Smalling said after the victory at Carrow Road on Saturday, but United should probably be looking beyond the remaining results.
‘This is the first time we are talking about our opponent and not about my sacking,’ Van Gaal said on Monday, and if United win their remaining league games and the FA Cup final, Woodward might be tempted to stick with the manager he appointed while claiming that his long-term plan remains on track.
There is enough evidence that if United do that, they would only be postponing a tough decision. The long-term plan will always be at the mercy of results.
In the worst Premier League in 20 years, United are in a battle for fourth place with a Manchester City side who rarely have any interest in a battle.
The only case for keeping Van Gaal is to move beyond a point where the only two options are Giggs and Mourinho. Mauricio Pochettino may be a more viable candidate in a year. Diego Simeone could be a more energising possibility than Mourinho.
Giggs wouldn’t be a better choice than either of these men. United should allow him to leave and implement his philosophy at a club where it may be worth the risk.
But if United lose at Upton Park on Tuesday night then the flimsiness of the case for stability will be revealed. If they miss out on Champions League football, Van Gaal, for all his wonderful idiosyncrasies, will look like yesterday’s man.
In the search for his successor, they won’t solve their problems by appointing a man whose main selling point is the seductive but empty idea that he can return Manchester United to their glorious past.
