• Premier League

Giggs gets a shot at United job

ESPN staff
April 22, 2014
ESPN FC: Moyes replacement options

Ryan Giggs will replace the sacked David Moyes as Manchester United manager until the end of the season, the club have confirmed.

United's owners, the Glazer family, finally ran out of patience with Moyes following Sunday's 2-0 defeat at Everton, with the club announcing his departure on Tuesday morning.

Giggs, 40, has made a record 962 appearances for United over a 23-year playing career, but is now set to take over at Old Trafford for the club's remaining four Premier League games this season.

The Welshman has taken his UEFA Pro-Licence coaching badges and worked as a player-coach under Moyes this season, but is likely only to be given the reins on a temporary basis with Louis van Gaal and Juergen Klopp among those in the running to take over on a permanent basis.

Last month the club were forced to deny Giggs had been involved in a bust-up with Moyes.

United fanzine Red Issue claimed Giggs fell out with Moyes over training methods, saying they did not fit with the club's attacking ethos. The publication also claimed Giggs had not attended a coaching meeting in the week before United's 3-0 home defeat to Liverpool, saying it was "pointless, as Moyes doesn't listen".

All to play for

  • Ryan Giggs has four Premier League games to convince Manchester United's owners, the Glazer family, that they need look no further than him when it comes to appointing a permanent manager at the club.
  • After being named as interim manager following the sacking of David Moyes, Giggs will take charge of United until the end of the season and has a good chance of impressing with a favourable fixture list.
  • United face three home games in succession with relegation-battlers Norwich (April 26), Sunderland (May 3) and then Hull (May 6) coming to Old Trafford before Giggs takes his side to Southampton (May 11) on the final day of the season.
  • Having been appointed to Moyes' backroom staff as a player-coach in the summer, Giggs will face a dilemma however over whether he continues in his active playing role with his record of scoring in every Premier League season on the line.
  • Giggs has not found the back of the net in 11 Premier League appearances this season, and may have to now sacrifice his record having scored in every campaign since the competition began in 1992-93.
  • The results that did for David Moyes

Giggs was also said to have stormed out of a training session in frustration. The magazine quoted Giggs as saying: "Two hours of defensive practice? This is Manchester United for f*** sake."

Despite the rumours, Moyes then started Giggs in United's crucial Champions League last-16 second leg tie at home to Olympiakos, in which Giggs starred as his side won 3-0 to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit.

Ahead of United's quarter-final first leg against Bayern, Giggs hinted he was unhappy at his lack of playing time under Moyes, but again denied a rift with his then-manager.

He said then: "The relationship is good. Of course as a player you want to play all the time. I know over the last five or six years you are not going to play every game. The last game was probably my first for seven weeks but you are not sulking. There is no problem with the manager. I don't know where that came from."

Last month, Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt - five of United's famed 'Class of 92' - agreed a deal to acquire non-league club Salford City by the end of the summer, if the takeover is approved by the FA.

Scholes and Neville had been very critical of United after their 3-0 home defeat to Manchester City in March, not long before details of Giggs' rumoured bust-up with Moyes surfaced.

Giggs made his first appearance for United on March 2, 1991, aged just 17, in a 2-0 defeat against Everton at Old Trafford, ironically the same result that eventually did for Moyes at Goodison Park.

He is the most decorated player in English football history, with 13 Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups and two Champions Leagues to his name.

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