Mitten on Giggs :
www.espnfc.com/club/manchester-united/360/blog/post/2880757/ryan-giggs-future-at-manchester-united-uncertain-with-jose-mourinho-coming-inAmid the sunshine, beaches and world's tallest tower in Dubai, Ryan Giggs contemplates his future.
"I intend to go to Dubai as soon as the season finishes," he told this writer last season. "We go at the end of May -- half term. You're guaranteed good weather there and I want to enjoy the sun with the kids."
Little has changed with his holiday plans this year, yet everything is different at Manchester United. Matters have not worked out as the club's record appearance holder had hoped. In his ideal world, Louis van Gaal would have been a successful manager at Old Trafford, left after three years and handed over to Giggs, who was told the job would be his and who was keen to learn under the Dutch master.
But football doesn't do ideal world scenarios any more than the idealised images of property developments reflect the reality of living in them. The Giggs-Van Gaal partnership was initially welcomed by United fans two summers ago after the pair met by Holland's North Sea for the first time.
"I was surprised, which I shouldn't be, of how charismatic he was," Giggs said. "From the outside you have one image of what he's like, but instantly he had a sense of humour and charisma which had me laughing after two or three minutes."
So far, so good. The relationship could have sparkled with success. Instead, Van Gaal's reign will largely be remembered for dull, low-scoring football matches, punctuated by a few highs and a decent FA Cup win. The boss was boss and what he said went. And in the end he went, sacked from United on Sunday evening which prompted a tearful farewell because, despite all the excuses -- some of them legitimate -- it wasn't good enough for United.
As Van Gaal departed, according to one friend, "off line" to recuperate and gather his thoughts in his Algarve villa in southern Portugal, Giggs flew to Dubai. Friends of Van Gaal think he'll return to management, friends of Giggs think he'll start being a manager elsewhere, with responsibility for his own decisions.
Giggs, 42, has done his badges and is ready to fly the nest he's called home for 29 years. On Saturday in the FA Cup final, he was off the bench giving instructions as United came from behind to lift a record 12th FA Cup, but the win was too little, too late to save Van Gaal.
In December, I spoke to a former teammate and friend of Giggs.
"He's doing himself no favours staying there," he said. "If I was him, I'd leave. He's ready to be a coach and he's got what it takes to be a good coach, but he doesn't look right sitting next to Van Gaal, a man who asks for his assistant to stay on the bench as he wants his players to work out their own solutions on the pitch."
Giggs considered himself ready to be United boss. Many of the players wanted him to replace Van Gaal, though players would be predisposed to have one of their own with a similar mentality over someone who has introduced a style of football they don't enjoy.
Giggs was asked to present his case to the United board, but the decision was made to go with Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese was the fans' favourite, the more experienced hand. As executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward knows well, the pair are almost complete opposites and he went with what would seem like the safer option.
Woodward has spoken to Giggs this week in a brief meeting before he went on holiday. He wants him to stay at United, but the position would have to be right.
Mourinho hasn't met Giggs yet. The pair get on fine, but Mourinho will bring his own men in, with Rui Faria, the former fitness coach he met on a seminar at Barcelona, as his assistant. He'll bring his trusted lieutenants, too. That's what happens in football all around the world. Giggs knows that.
He would be up for remaining assistant manager, but the job is not there. Another role could be a viewed as a demotion.
There's an attraction in going it alone, in standing by your own decisions and getting them right or wrong. And the pay will be much, much better, too.
The idea of doing a couple of years and then coming back to United as boss would hold appeal if he does well. In reality, football doesn't work as seamlessly as a Swiss rail timetable.
Giggs knows that his stock has been damaged at United in the past three years. He wanted to be promoted internally like Pep Guardiola or Zinedine Zidane, but instead he's associated with a manager who couldn't manage a top-four finish after spending a fortune on players.
But football changes quickly. Circumstances may have not played in Giggs' favour, but he's still a huge name and he's had offers to manage and coach both in the UK and further afield.
Giggs is also the only one of the Class of '92 who has never left United, the Salfordian who lives so close to Old Trafford that he cycles to work. David Beckham flew the nest for the brighter lights of Madrid, LA, Milan, Paris and London long ago. Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and Giggs stayed as players. All three would go to No. 1, 3 and 5, respectively, in United's all-time appearance chart.
Giggs, who played an astonishing 963 first-team games for MUFC, 204 more than Sir Bobby Charlton in second, has seen the once reticent Scholes leave United and be a surprisingly outspoken success in the media. Phil Neville, who, strictly speaking, was from the youth team class of '95, is looking to transition into management after coaching at Valencia. There he was briefly joined by brother Gary, who did well in the media and even managed to get Liverpool and Manchester City fans who once despised him to respect him. After his bumpy spell in charge of Valencia, Gary's preparing to coach England in the European Championship. He also has decisions to make about his future.
Nicky Butt left United for Newcastle, only to return where he now heads up United's youth system, charged with returning greatness to a system which was under resourced and causing concern.
That leaves Giggs, the boy wonder who came through the ranks at the club he'd supported, the club he paid to watch and stand on the Stretford End when he wasn't out on the pitch himself. The boy who became a man and won the lot over and over again. The man now contemplating leaving.
I spoke to a contemporary of Giggs' recently. "I was depressed for a month after leaving United," he said. "Really down and in a daze. But I made the right decision. And if I go back -- and I'd like to go back -- I'll go back stronger."
Giggs might think the same.