Ryan Giggs has admitted his last season as Manchester United player was an extremely complicated time, as the team he’s spent his whole career at badly struggled under David Moyes.
Giggsy said that seeing United in such difficult and unfamiliar territory was made even more complicated by his new role as player-coach and by not having Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford for the first time in his career.
“It was a difficult period,” said Giggs.
“[Sir Alex] was the only manager I’d ever known for Man United, that was strange, and for me personally going into a different role as player/coach, that was different as well, and things not going so well.
“We’ve gone three years without winning the Premier League a couple of times, that was nothing new, but obviously what was different was Sir Alex wasn’t there, so the intensity and the spotlight and the pressure was probably even more.”
With four games to go until the end of the season, Moyes was relieved of his duties, with Giggs stepping in as interim manager. The United legend admitted walking onto the pitch at Old Trafford as Manchester United manager was a special moment.
“That was the proudest moment – walking out on to the pitch and the fans and the crowd giving me a great reception,” he said.
“Growing up as a child supporting United, and then obviously being lucky enough to play for so many years – I never actually thought I would be in charge of the team.
“It was a challenge, it was totally out of my comfort zone, but one that I enjoyed. I put myself under a lot of pressure because I wanted to win four games out of four.
“Unfortunately we didn’t but I loved every minute of it and the players reacted really well and the fans reacted really well. In that respect it couldn’t have gone any better.”
Since then, United have spent £150m in the transfer window and Louis Van Gaal has taken over at Old Trafford, with Giggs retained as number two.
United have not hit the ground running as they were expected to do, but positive performances against Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal have given encouraging signs to the fans.
“Obviously the results haven’t been brilliant but we’re getting there,” said Giggs.
“It was a big win for us at the weekend against a very good Arsenal team so we’ve just got to build on that and try and get some consistency.
“You never say never with anything in life and especially in football but at the moment I’m just concentrating on the short-term future and that’s at United.”
