Ryan Giggs has yet to dip his toe into main man, my show management although he was a courtier during the troubled reign of King Louis van Gaal at Manchester United. The former Wales international has long stressed he fancies a crack in charge at a club somewhere and Ross Tyson (@rosstyson) believes the time has come to take the plunge.
Ryan Giggs has been linked to a lot of gigs. In fact, Alan Curbishley may be casting a jealous glare over at the 13-time Premier League winner when he sees Giggs as the bookies’ favourite for half the jobs in the Football League.
But why is he being linked to the jobs? What is the problem and which job should he take?
Why?
I’m never surprised to see him linked to jobs. Ryan Giggs’ name is synonymous with club football success, he’s unemployed, and since April 2014 has been a coach, an assistant and even a player-manager. He’s won everything there is to win and is seemingly ready to pass on that knowledge.
It’s also no surprise to me that he’s not been handed a job as yet. He has no real experience managing a club (you can argue he hasn’t been given a chance) and his spells as a coach and assistant manager has come during Manchester United’s 21st-century nadir.
He, of course, can’t be solely blamed for this, but if the time is used to highlight his experience, why can’t the results be used against him? For me, the reactions from the likes of Robbie Savage (who suggested Swansea didn’t even need to interview Giggs, just meet him, evaluate his CV and question him on what he’d bring to the role) and Chris Sutton highlight the bigger problem.
The bigger problem
Some radio and TV pundits would have you believe “Jonny Foreigner managers” are the issue, but for me that’s wrong. A fundamental issue is an idea that because a player was good, he will, therefore, be a good manager. There are examples of this of course; Ronald Koeman and Pep Guardiola, but there are far more – Diego Maradonna, Alan Shearer, Tim Sherwood and Bobby Charlton flavoured examples of the opposite.
It’s an article in itself, so I won’t dwell on it, but I think it’s the insistence to appoint an “old boy” a “proper football man” that prevents coaches without illustrious careers (*cough Mourinho, Wegner, Klopp cough*) from getting management jobs.
Much of football is instinctual – just ask Ronaldinho or Hal Robson-Kanu. Just because Ryan Giggs was a fluid attacker, does not mean he could instantly turn Swansea, Cardiff or Aston Villa into an irresistible force. That being said, it also doesn’t mean he couldn’t. So that brings us onto the next question:
Where should Giggs go?
Rumour had it he ended his 29-year association with Manchester United after being overlooked for the manager’s job. If true, it shows how high his sights were set. I’d suggest he goes down a similar route to Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, but it appears Giggs may be offered the Wigan job, recently vacated by Gary Caldwell.
There are, of course, drawbacks; Wigan are in the relegation zone of the Championship and don’t have the glamour of an Aston Villa or Swansea, but he may also be given more time at the DW and simply surviving may be enough – Wigan, with some investment, does have the squad to stay up.
If Giggs is confident in his managerial ability he should take the chance to prove it, rather than waiting around for the perfect job. That may never be offered.