EPL: Time to play like Man United Again - Ryan Giggs

By Mark Ogden

Ryan Giggs declared that “we will go back to
playing like Manchester United ” during his
first team-talk to the club’s players after
being appointed interim manager in place of
the sacked David Moyes .
The 40-year-old, who will take charge of
United for the first time against Norwich City
at Old Trafford on Saturday, has been told by
Ed Woodward, the executive vice-chairman,
that he will not be considered for the
manager’s job on a permanent basis, with
Carlo Ancelotti, Louis van Gaal and Diego
Simeone the favoured candidates to succeed
Moyes.
Debut: Ryan Giggs will take charge of
Manchester United for the first time against
Norwich on Saturday

Van Gaal, who has informed the
football association of his decision to leave
his post following the World Cup finals in the
summer, is on holiday in the Portuguese
resort of Vale do Lobo and available for talks
before the tournament in Brazil.
Giggs, having been marginalised in his
player-coach role by Moyes in recent
months, has challenged United’s failing
players to restore the club’s pride over the
final four games of a disastrous season
which is likely to end with the fallen
champions finishing in seventh position.
In a move which highlighted Giggs’s
determination to restore United’s traditions,
the former midfielder Paul Scholes
overlooked for a position by Moyes, was
invited back to the club on Wednesday to
assist with first-team training.
With Giggs left to oversee playing matters
until the end of the campaign, United’s
owners, the Glazer family, are due to fly into
Manchester before the weekend to hold talks
with Woodward, Sir Alex Ferguson and other
senior figures in order to hone plans to
recruit Moyes’s successor.
The Glazers are also due to discuss United’s
summer transfer budget, with £150 million
set aside for moves for the likes of
Southampton’s Luke Shaw and Paris St-
Germain’s Edinson Cavani. Cesc Fabregas,
the Barcelona midfielder, is another under
consideration, despite rejecting United’s
advances last summer.
United are understood to have held talks with
Cavani’s advisers in the French capital last
week in an effort to persuade the Uruguayan
forward – rated at £60 million by PSG – to
agree to a pre-World Cup move.
Attempts to bolster United’s squad will
continue during the process of recruiting a
new manager, with candidates advised of the
club’s targets and offered the chance to veto
any moves should they secure the job.
With Woodward and the Glazers due to
consider their strategy in the coming days,
United could yet hold talks with figures on
their short-list should they secure
permission from their current employers.
Reports in Ireland on Wednesday suggested
that Van Gaal would be keen to recruit Roy
Keane, the former United captain, as his
assistant should he be appointed as
manager.
With Ferguson a key member of the group
advising Woodward and the Glazers in their
manager search, the prospect of the Scot
being comfortable with Keane returning to
United following the ugly breakdown of their
relationship is one that is regarded as
hypothetical by senior figures at the club.
United are aware of the need to avoid a
repeat of the mistake last year in appointing
a manager without trophy-winning pedigree,
which is why their short-list on this occasion
centres only on those regarded as being
capable of ensuring the club challenge for the
Premier League title next season.
Although Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp
have been ruled out due to their public
commitment to Bayern Munich and Borussia
Dortmund respectively, there is a belief that
Ancelotti and Simeone could be prised from
their current employers should they be
identified as the chosen candidate to
succeed Moyes.
Moyes’s fractured relationship with his
United squad was borne out on Wednesday
with the Scot failing to acknowledge the
players in a statement issued via the League
Managers Association.
Moyes, who celebrates his 51st birthday on
Friday, thanked the staff and supporters at
Old Trafford, but conspicuously overlooked
the players he had worked with since
succeeding Ferguson last summer.
None of the United players on Twitter have so
far tweeted about Moyes’s departure, with
sources close to a group of the club’s squad
suggesting that the former manager’s
statement was greeted with ambivalence
within the dressing room.
Giggs has urged his squad to focus on
putting the Moyes era behind them as the
team attempt to close the six-point gap
behind Tottenham Hotspur to claim sixth
place and Europa League qualification.
The players have been coached by Scholes,
Nicky Butt and Phil Neville, with Giggs
overseeing the sessions, since Tuesday.
Fringe players overlooked by Moyes, such as
Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck, are likely
to return to the starting line-up against
Norwich, with Moyes’s signings, Juan Mata
and Marouane Fellaini, at risk of being
dropped to the substitutes’ bench.