BBC: United hold talks with Mourinho

[Raees]

Manchester United face a seminal moment - if they really want a boss who will rescue the club's spirit give the job to Ryan Giggs by Oliver Holt

• Manchester City will have Pep Guardiola as their new manager next season
• The move will have Manchester United supporters worried about their rivals
• Jose Mourinho has been linked with replacing manager Louis van Gaal
• But United should adopt a sentimental choice by promoting Ryan Giggs
• Giggs would breathe new life into the club and revive United fans' passion

The news that Pep Guardiola had signed to be the Manchester City manager from next season caused delight among the club's fans and spread dismay elsewhere. In particular, it spread dismay among Manchester United supporters, whose fears about City accelerating from them into an ever-brighter future came spilling out into the open. United dread City's progress more keenly than others. It shines an unforgiving light on their own struggles and their recent misuse of money and opportunity. It relegates them within their own city. It strikes right at the heart of the assumptions of superiority and might that they have built up over the last 30 years.

So immediately, there was talk of how United should respond. How should they match City? How should they banish that gnawing feeling they were being left behind? The easiest, laziest answer was to get a trophy manager all of their own. That was one of the reasons why reports that Jose Mourinho is confident he will be the United boss next season seemed credible. United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward likes trophy players and trophy managers. That's his style. He is a football neophyte who is impressed by big names.

Mourinho as the next boss has got Woodward's fingerprints all over it. In the short term, it would buy Woodward time with an increasingly disillusioned fan-base. In the short term, it's a crowd-pleaser that would make him look good. In the short term, it would silence dissent. But is it really a solution to United's problems? The suspicion is that Mourinho would just bring more of the same.

The Portuguese is a modern version of Louis van Gaal. He is not going to bring flowing, attacking football back to Old Trafford. If he comes, he will bring discord, cheap shots and efficiency. He may bring trophies, too, but he will not bring back the magic.

If United want to compete with Guardiola, if they want to make an appointment that has the power to unnerve City and create an intensity of feeling that Guardiola cannot match at the Etihad, there is a solution available that is a lot simpler than Mourinho.
The solution is right under their noses. Give the job to Ryan Giggs and give it to him now. Not on a caretaker basis, either. Give him a four-and-half-year contract and let him breathe new life into a club ossifying under the yoke of Van Gaal and being taken backwards by the impressionable incompetence of Woodward.

Sure, Giggs is short of experience, but so was Guardiola when he took over at Barcelona. So is Zinedine Zidane, who has just been given the manager's role at Real Madrid. Sometimes, if you want to think really big, you don't go out and buy a managerial legend; you create a new one all of your own. He will not betray that legacy of attacking play, as Van Gaal has done.
Sure, Giggs is a risk. But then isn't everyone? Turns out Van Gaal was a risk, too. A risk United should never have taken. And Mourinho would be a risk, especially after the way he lost the power to motivate his Chelsea players. He is one of the greats of the game but if it all turned sour for him at a club where he was revered, it could happen at United.

The idea of giving it to Giggs still sounds impossibly sentimental, doesn't it? That's because it is. There is no need to make any apology for that. United are the most sentimental club in the world. When they are at their best, they run on emotion. In the years since Sir Alex Ferguson left, that is the main thing that has been lost. Van Gaal's stultifying football has bored fans into submission. Old Trafford used to be a hotbed of passion. Not any more. People say it's like a library there now but they're wrong. It's more like a mortuary. Van Gaal has sucked the emotion out of the place. It needs to be fed back in.

So give it to Giggs. Rescue the spirit of the club before you do anything else. Make him the manager, think about roles for Gary and Phil Neville, whose talents are in danger of being obscured by the chaos at Valencia, and give Oxford United boss Michael Appleton, another United alumnus, a senior coaching role.
Then sit back and watch the emotion flood back and the results follow. We can at least say this about Giggs and the experience he has had under David Moyes and Van Gaal: he knows what doesn't work. He has seen the holes in the road and he knows how to avoid them.

All those who have worked with him as a coach speak highly of him. And some of those close to him says he has the cold detachment that is a prerequisite for managerial success.He also knows how to reinvigorate Old Trafford. He spent 20 years as a winger in all the great Ferguson sides. He knows how to create the flowing, attacking football that generations of United fans have been raised on. He knows not to betray that legacy, as Van Gaal has done.

+10
United should think about roles for Gary and Phil Neville, whose talents currently employed at Valencia
Oxford United boss Michael Appleton, another United alumnus, should be given a senior coaching role

This is a seminal moment for United. A crossroads moment. They can take the lazy option with Mourinho and keep going down the road that has led them away from the summit. Or they can take the bold option with Giggs, the option that talks more of romance than commercialism, and go back to their roots. The 58th anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster on Saturday was a day to remember that United are a club built on legends.They are built on the memory of Duncan Edwards standing at the head of his team with his chest puffed out. They are built on George Best slaloming past the Benfica goalkeeper at Wembley to help United win the European Cup in 1968. They are built on the Class of '92 and Roy Keane in Turin and the 'football, bloody hell' mayhem of the Nou Camp in 1999.

Mourinho won't bring that back. He can't. It's not in his DNA. He goes into a club and stays for three years. When he has gone, the only legacy he leaves is scorched earth. If United want to become even more like every other team in England, they'll go for him.

If they want to be special again, if they want to have something that none of the rest can have, if they want true glory, then they'll go for Giggs.

Probably the shittest article I have ever read on redcafe. Take a bow son.. journalistic suicide.

 

[InfiniteBoredom]

It's a shit WUM.

United was at their peak under Ferguson on emotion? Get to feck. We were a bunch of ruthless cnuts who did everything possible to win, not starry eyed idealists.

 

[Antisocial]

One might almost think Oliver Holt wanted United to fail whilst City are progressing...

 

[Devil may care]

The article is certainly special. Holt must be a City fan or high on glue.

 

[Arytonblue]

You know I thought it was bad enough that some United fans were just lazily saying 'sure give it to Giggs, he's United through and through' but Holt actually writes as if he's given it quite a bit of thought and goes into detail of why and how we should hire Giggs, with jobs for the boys like the Neville brothers and.......Michael Appleton.... from Oxford.....?

EMOTION being the operative word that will apparently lead us back to glory.

That article is a gem, who says journalism is dead? That majestic piece of pulitzer worthy writing should give us all hope that yes, one day, literally anyone could write for the Daily Fail Sports section and not only embarrass themselves on a weekly basis but bring joy and laughter to fans and readers alike.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Think about roles for Gary and Phil Neville, whose talents are in danger of being obscured by the chaos at Valencia,

What just... what.
That one line alone....

 

[Attila]

What just... what.
That one line alone....

It's one of the worst articles I've ever read

 

[Randall Flagg]

In an ideal world it would be the greatest thing, for Giggs to be a huge success as the Utd manager. If I knew it would work it would easily be my 1st choice...and if they went that route I would fully support it, albeit be a little nervous on how it plays out

Agreed on everything he says about Jose

Damn good article

 

[Attila]

In an ideal world it would be the greatest thing, for Giggs to be a huge success as the Utd manager. If I knew it would work it would easily be my 1st choice...and if they went that route I would fully support it, albeit be a little nervous on how it plays out

Agreed on everything he says about Jose

Damn good article

So give it to Giggs. Rescue the spirit of the club before you do anything else. Make him the manager, think about roles for Gary and Phil Neville, whose talents are in danger of being obscured by the chaos at Valencia, and give Oxford United boss Michael Appleton, another United alumnus, a senior coaching role. Then sit back and watch the emotion flood back and the results follow.

It's written like bad fan fiction. Bring in Scholes and Robbie Savage too

 

[.Rossi]

Does anyone remember 90's Fergie? Or am I alone in having a long term memory?

Jimmy Hill said we were a dirty team....He called Jimmy Hill a prat, on TV, as his team went out and kick lumps out of Norwich

Or the time he said teams never try unless it's against United and that they cheat their fans and manager.

Or the time he actually defended Roy Keane, with a straight face, after he was arrested for assault.

Or the time he attacked Wenger when people said he was intelligent...According to some of you lot it was brilliant and hilarious but, when Mourinho says something similar it's a "disgrace"

Nowt to do with Fergie but, anyone remember the antics in Brazil in 2000? Hardly the "United way"

Seriously, if the "United way" was to be believed, you'd only get the job if you were a virgin and never ate meat on a Friday


Eating meat rules me out

 

[K2K]

That's a fairly big statement from lvg, is it not?

Considering how close he and Woody are meant to be I would be surprised if the club went behind his back for Jose. I would have though it would be similar scenario to Pep and City

Maybe, just maybe those reports were false

It really isnt.

Especially considering we went behind Moyes' back while talking to Van Gaal. Remember that LVG was basically Spurs bound until he started talking to us, and then walked away from talks with Levy. Van Gaal will know too that is how the game works, seeing as he's done the same thing too. However he simply wont entertain this now.

We allowed Moyes to travel all over Europe scouting players, even when we knew we had been talking to another manager, and that we were planning to fire him.

What's more telling is that a club that kept months denying any link to Guardiola , now simply refuses to comment on this one.

 

[Attila]

It really isnt.

Especially considering we went behind Moyes' back while talking to Van Gaal. Remember that LVG was basically Spurs bound until he started talking to us, and then walked away from talks with Levy. Van Gaal will know too that is how the game works, seeing as he's done the same thing too. However he simply wont entertain this now.

We allowed Moyes to travel all over Europe scouting players, even when we knew we had been talking to another manager, and that we were planning to fire him.

What's more telling is that a club that kept months denying any link to Guardiola , now simply refuses to comment on this one.

The denial thing is a good point. When papers said we had met pep in Paris the club quickly put an end to it but the stories about talking with Mourinho haven't had any response at all.

 

[POF]

I'd agree with that
but ..
He was creating a shitstorm on a weekly basis this season.
If he wasn't throwing his own players under the bus he was going on a 10 min unprovoked rant about why he shouldn't be fired.

Chelsea were a total circus this season and he was the source of the overwhelming majority of the crap coming out.

Mourinho post inter would have definitely tempted me, i just think Real broke him a bit.
He definitely needs to curb his behavior a bit imo.

Agreed that Chelsea was a mess this season. Something wasn't right there from the very start of the season and Mourinho had really lost the plot. Could the same happen at United? Of course. But there are risks with every appointment.

 

[LeftyBlaster]

LVG rubbishing all Mourinho "rumours"

 

[.Rossi]

We allowed Moyes to travel all over Europe scouting players, even when we knew we had been talking to another manager, and that we were planning to fire him.

Anywhere other than Manchester was the best place for that tosser

 

[Dr. J]

That was one of the worst articles I've ever read. Given the articles and transfer "news" linked on this site, I'm convinced that all you need to be employed as a sports writer in Britain is the ability to type and the ability to make things up.

 

[Dr. J]

Anywhere other than Manchester was the best place for that tosser

Drop him off to scout Zenit St. Petersburg, call back the private jet, and text him the news.

 

[MDFC Manager]

That article. Wtf?

As for LvG saying there's "no relationship between United and Mourinho"... he could well be right. The rumours are just that there was a meeting, nothing has been finalized yet.

 

[.Rossi]

Drop him off to scout Zenit St. Petersburg, call back the private jet, and text him the news.

Seriously, the truth will come out someday.

There is no way, as big as Fergie's ego is, would he have pushed for this guy.
I know Fergie cares about his legacy etc but, there is no way he wanted this guy. I refuse to believe it.

However, another discussion for another day

 

[roseguy64]

His contract is until Summer 2017. Mourinho won't wait 18 months, he is not that desperate for United.

Oh I know that but like with Heynckes at Bayern and Pellegrini at City, things change if someone younger comes along who's better.

 

[K2K]

The denial thing is a good point. When papers said we had met pep in Paris the club quickly put an end to it but the stories about talking with Mourinho haven't had any response at all.

It wasnt just the Paris meeting denials only.

Type ' United not interested in Guardiola' on Google and set it for results around December 6 last year. Plenty of newspaper articles at the time saying we werent looking at Pep. We went well out of our way to dismiss any links with him. I think at this point, we already knew where Pep was going.

For me, there's too much smoke here. I dont know if Mourinho will end up manager, but I am convinced that talks have taken place. All the big transfer deals and managerial movements are always preceded by many months of talks beforehand.

 

[K2K]

Anywhere other than Manchester was the best place for that tosser

That was cruel from Woody.

Moyes spent the time cris-crossing around Europe thinking that he would have the Summer to unleash the warchest (as the press called it at the time), while we knew .

Cruel but necessary.

 

[.Rossi]

That was cruel from Woody.

Moyes spent the time cris-crossing around Europe thinking that he would have the Summer to unleash the warchest (as the press called it at the time), while we knew .

Cruel but necessary.

No, feck him.

Seriously, he bragged about how "great it was" to walk into any match in Europe. Whilst he was manager here. Guy is an arse.

Genuinely, how many times do you need to scout the likes of Reus and Muller? Guy is a fraud.

As for the "warchest"
The only war that lad knows is when he is trying to undo the knot in his shoelace and I doubt he even won that

 

[Wumminator]

I read that article thinking it was the best thing I'd read in a while and look at the reaction it got

 

[.Rossi]

I read that article thinking it was the best thing I'd read in a while and look at the reaction it got

Not the United way etc etc etc

 

[newgiz]

Genuinely, how many times do you need to scout the likes of Reus and Muller? Guy is a fraud.

Quite a lot it seems as most recently he stated on Sky television when asked about his thoughts on Ozil stated that the jury was still out on Ozil but then subsequently when asked about Fellaini stated he was an amazing player.

 

[.Rossi]

Quite a lot it seems as most recently he stated on Sky television when asked about his thoughts on Ozil stated that the jury was still out on Ozil but then subsequently when asked about Fellaini stated he was an amazing player.

I try not to hate people....And for the most part, I do a good job of it.

But, Moyes pushes my patience

 

[ravi2]

I try not to hate people....And for the most part, I do a good job of it.

But, Moyes pushes my patience

feck moyes.

 

[nick2004]

Quite a lot it seems as most recently he stated on Sky television when asked about his thoughts on Ozil stated that the jury was still out on Ozil but then subsequently when asked about Fellaini stated he was an amazing player.

 

[newgiz]

feck moyes.

Precisely. I don't feel sorry for Moyes as some do as I see him as a clueless person who got away with earning millions for essentially fecking up a team.

 

[podurban2]

If they want to be special again, if they want to have something that none of the rest can have, if they want true glory, then they'll go for Giggs.

The cringe.

 

[InfiniteBoredom]

Precisely. I don't feel sorry for Moyes as some do as I see him as a clueless person who got away with earning millions for essentially fecking up a team.

I'd feel a bit sorry for him and able to let go of my animosity had he actually been man enough to own up to his own failures and apologize to the fans who have to endured that shitshow, but all he did ever since leaving us was acting the victim and waffled on about 'more time'.

So yeah, feck him.

 

[DatIrishFella]

The thought of the Neville bros & Giggs managing United is a scary thought. Loved them as players, but that's where it ends.

 

[.Rossi]

Every ex scouse in the media, every ABU in the media is pushing for Giggs to get the job....

And no one on here, to my knowledge, has connected the dots to this how?

When tossers like that are pushing for Giggs, you should know something is a miss. The same cnuts who had nothing good to say about him for years

 

[Sky1981]

You think the press cares for united way? Nope.

The biggest press wankfest is united darlings failing at united. That'll sell papers for the whole year

 

[Jazz]

Who the feck payed Holt to write that shit article? Thankfully, United fans commenting on the article are having none of it. We should sort out the future of our club on emotion????

I wish journalists and such would stop pushing this shit. Surely they want our club to be Liverpool Mk2?
The only thing is Ed as an ex-banker will surely not use emotion to make a decision, so any arguments as such will go over his head.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Of course, he is going to deny it, until club says something. Likely, he doesn't know much, and even if he knows that he will leave in the summer, it wouldn't be beneficial to talk about that.

I am beginning to think that LvG is the board as he is the only one who comes out with any statements.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

What just... what.
That one line alone....

I nearly choked on my breakfast when I read that.

 

[Godfather]

That Holt article is the biggest piece of shit I had to read for a pretty long time

 

[SirAF]

Manchester United face a seminal moment - if they really want a boss who will rescue the club's spirit give the job to Ryan Giggs by Oliver Holt

• Manchester City will have Pep Guardiola as their new manager next season
• The move will have Manchester United supporters worried about their rivals
• Jose Mourinho has been linked with replacing manager Louis van Gaal
• But United should adopt a sentimental choice by promoting Ryan Giggs
• Giggs would breathe new life into the club and revive United fans' passion

The news that Pep Guardiola had signed to be the Manchester City manager from next season caused delight among the club's fans and spread dismay elsewhere. In particular, it spread dismay among Manchester United supporters, whose fears about City accelerating from them into an ever-brighter future came spilling out into the open. United dread City's progress more keenly than others. It shines an unforgiving light on their own struggles and their recent misuse of money and opportunity. It relegates them within their own city. It strikes right at the heart of the assumptions of superiority and might that they have built up over the last 30 years.

So immediately, there was talk of how United should respond. How should they match City? How should they banish that gnawing feeling they were being left behind? The easiest, laziest answer was to get a trophy manager all of their own. That was one of the reasons why reports that Jose Mourinho is confident he will be the United boss next season seemed credible. United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward likes trophy players and trophy managers. That's his style. He is a football neophyte who is impressed by big names.

Mourinho as the next boss has got Woodward's fingerprints all over it. In the short term, it would buy Woodward time with an increasingly disillusioned fan-base. In the short term, it's a crowd-pleaser that would make him look good. In the short term, it would silence dissent. But is it really a solution to United's problems? The suspicion is that Mourinho would just bring more of the same.

The Portuguese is a modern version of Louis van Gaal. He is not going to bring flowing, attacking football back to Old Trafford. If he comes, he will bring discord, cheap shots and efficiency. He may bring trophies, too, but he will not bring back the magic.

If United want to compete with Guardiola, if they want to make an appointment that has the power to unnerve City and create an intensity of feeling that Guardiola cannot match at the Etihad, there is a solution available that is a lot simpler than Mourinho.
The solution is right under their noses. Give the job to Ryan Giggs and give it to him now. Not on a caretaker basis, either. Give him a four-and-half-year contract and let him breathe new life into a club ossifying under the yoke of Van Gaal and being taken backwards by the impressionable incompetence of Woodward.

Sure, Giggs is short of experience, but so was Guardiola when he took over at Barcelona. So is Zinedine Zidane, who has just been given the manager's role at Real Madrid. Sometimes, if you want to think really big, you don't go out and buy a managerial legend; you create a new one all of your own. He will not betray that legacy of attacking play, as Van Gaal has done.
Sure, Giggs is a risk. But then isn't everyone? Turns out Van Gaal was a risk, too. A risk United should never have taken. And Mourinho would be a risk, especially after the way he lost the power to motivate his Chelsea players. He is one of the greats of the game but if it all turned sour for him at a club where he was revered, it could happen at United.

The idea of giving it to Giggs still sounds impossibly sentimental, doesn't it? That's because it is. There is no need to make any apology for that. United are the most sentimental club in the world. When they are at their best, they run on emotion. In the years since Sir Alex Ferguson left, that is the main thing that has been lost. Van Gaal's stultifying football has bored fans into submission. Old Trafford used to be a hotbed of passion. Not any more. People say it's like a library there now but they're wrong. It's more like a mortuary. Van Gaal has sucked the emotion out of the place. It needs to be fed back in.

So give it to Giggs. Rescue the spirit of the club before you do anything else. Make him the manager, think about roles for Gary and Phil Neville, whose talents are in danger of being obscured by the chaos at Valencia, and give Oxford United boss Michael Appleton, another United alumnus, a senior coaching role.
Then sit back and watch the emotion flood back and the results follow. We can at least say this about Giggs and the experience he has had under David Moyes and Van Gaal: he knows what doesn't work. He has seen the holes in the road and he knows how to avoid them.

All those who have worked with him as a coach speak highly of him. And some of those close to him says he has the cold detachment that is a prerequisite for managerial success.He also knows how to reinvigorate Old Trafford. He spent 20 years as a winger in all the great Ferguson sides. He knows how to create the flowing, attacking football that generations of United fans have been raised on. He knows not to betray that legacy, as Van Gaal has done.

+10
United should think about roles for Gary and Phil Neville, whose talents currently employed at Valencia
Oxford United boss Michael Appleton, another United alumnus, should be given a senior coaching role

This is a seminal moment for United. A crossroads moment. They can take the lazy option with Mourinho and keep going down the road that has led them away from the summit. Or they can take the bold option with Giggs, the option that talks more of romance than commercialism, and go back to their roots. The 58th anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster on Saturday was a day to remember that United are a club built on legends.They are built on the memory of Duncan Edwards standing at the head of his team with his chest puffed out. They are built on George Best slaloming past the Benfica goalkeeper at Wembley to help United win the European Cup in 1968. They are built on the Class of '92 and Roy Keane in Turin and the 'football, bloody hell' mayhem of the Nou Camp in 1999.

Mourinho won't bring that back. He can't. It's not in his DNA. He goes into a club and stays for three years. When he has gone, the only legacy he leaves is scorched earth. If United want to become even more like every other team in England, they'll go for him.

If they want to be special again, if they want to have something that none of the rest can have, if they want true glory, then they'll go for Giggs.