Fresh from turning Red Monday into Vanilla Monday on Sky Sports, Ryan Giggs has started a column with the Telegraph.
In his debut column this weekend, Giggs writes of his leaving of Old Trafford and his belief that post-Ferguson decline was not inevitable.
He also offers his insight into how things went so spectacularly awry under David Moyes after Ferguson finally stepped away in 2013.
There was a feeling that Moyes was hasty in ridding the club of Mike Phelan and the rest of Ferguson's backroom staff, replacing them with his own team, including Steve Round, who infamously produced a bulky looking manual of set-pieces on the sideline as the Moyes reign staggered to its inevitably miserable conclusion.
Giggs' words in today's paper would seem to confirm that Moyes made a mistake in not surrounding himself with men more steeped in the club's ways:
Instead, the recruitment in that first summer under David Moyes didn't go to plan. I don’t blame David. He came in without any of the inside knowledge about how the squad worked: when certain players needed resting, who was right for which game, who needed to be moved on and who needed to be encouraged. Those of us who had lived through it could help him a bit, but a manager has to acquire that knowledge over time.
Sir Alex might not necessarily have had a first-choice XI but he knew exactly what side was needed for each game, and would have that planned weeks ahead. David did not have that information. He started with a blank sheet of paper and for most of the first season we were chasing our best XI, or the right team for the game in question. The best run of form was the six straight wins in December 2013 when we had a reasonably settled side, and then injuries kicked in and things went wrong.
The training sessions under David were excellent. All the players enjoyed them and there was no downturn in the competitiveness that had always been a feature under Sir Alex. Perhaps something else was lost with his departure that was bigger – something that was harder to quantify but there nonetheless.
Giggs touches on many things besides this in his column, and it's pretty good overall, so read it here.
