The "rewards" I was speaking of were that if Giggs succeeds then it is highly possible that we have our manager sorted for the next 20+ years. No other candidate can offer that. Furthermore, the story and romanticism of one of our own doing it, would make that success all the sweeter.
This isnt to say that trophies would be bittersweet under another manager, and it isnt to say that they should make
me manager because I could be there for 50 years. I am just talking about risk:reward.
For me, the risk with Giggs is not much (if at all) greater than other candidates -
@Alex99 made a good post on that with some arguments I have made previously, that even the top tier managers like Pep, Ancelotti and Mourinho all have potential gaps in their CV, and have not managed a situation quite like United before. Nor has Giggs of course, but he has been in and around the club for a long time and understands what has to be done on a day to day basis, understands the expectations, understands the club etc.
Fair enough. But again, like with some of the other alternatives, there are loads of presumptions involved here in terms of the longevity conjecture, evidenced by the ifs and highly possible arguments. The narrative of him continuing for 20 years sounds awesome, but surely you must agree with the fact that it's far from certain, instead of being highly possible? Who's to say Giggs won't turn out to be a one and done man like Johan Cruyff. He too had a deep history with Barcelona, he helped found La Masia in its current guise, he set the template for a system that survives to this day, he build the dream team as they were called, with Romario, Koeman, Stoichkov, Guardiola, Laudrup. And who's to say an outsider like Pep doesn't fall in love with the club, and decides to stay? Arsene Wenger for one isn't British, and one might've guessed he would have left Arsenal long ago, given the interest from Real Madrid among others. Yet here we are, and he's the second longest tenured manager in Premier League history after Fergie. I personally wouldn't call a 20 year stint highly possible when it's fraught with a million variables. And why don't the other candidates offer that in absolute terms? When as mentioned above, Wenger never evidenced the desire to drop deep roots at his previous club, yet he did so at Arsenal.
And honestly, I don't like the arguments about knowing the club in the slightest. What does that even imply, does it take decades to learn about how a club functions? Are Pep and Ancelotti idiots who can't fathom how work their way around things? Or about its decade long history and association? Eric Cantona for one is a passionate United man through and through, and he was here for just 5 seasons, with no previous links whatsoever. Is he any less of United man? Great managers can grasp things on the fly. I'm pretty sure someone like a Guardiola would immerse himself from the get go, and know everything there is to know about the club in a couple of seasons at max. So is Giggs' continued presence that big of an advantage? And while Pep, Ancelotti and Mourinho have chinks in their CV, they are far, far superior to Giggs when it comes to their overall resume, aside from the tangential stuff like understanding the club and whatnot. What's so special about the United situation really, in objective terms?
Is it the weight of expectations? Because Pep managed at Barcelona, and is managing Bayern Munich. Those aren't minnows compared to United. Ancelotti managed Milan and Juventus, two of the greatest football clubs ever, with massive legacies to live up to. As well as Real Madrid.
Is it about traditions? Because believe it or not, those clubs have their traditions too. United aren't unique when one casts off fan bias aside. And we don't have a tradition of managerial longevity either. Two anomalies over over a dozen doth not a tradition make. We promote youth? So do Barcelona and Bayern Munich. We have a history of success? So do Real Madrid, Milan and Juventus. We want to lay attractive football? So do most big clubs.
Is it about commanding the respect of players? Because Ancelotti has managed Zidane, Inzaghi, Del Piero, Conte, Davids, Kaka, Rui Costa, Maldini, Pirlo, Costacurta, Shevchenko, Ballack, Lampard, Terry, Cole, Ibrahimovic, Thiago, Ronaldo, Benzema - and almost none of them have a bad word to say about the man. Would he not command the repsect of whatever players United have? When in fact he did so with Ballon Do'Or winners, World Cup winners, European Championship winners, multiple Champions League winners?
Is it about managing a squad in transition? Because despite the narrative of Guardiola being a squad even a numpty could manage, they were an organisational mess on multiple levels. He had to get rid of Ronaldinho and Deco in the first season, he had to assimilate Henry in the team, then he had to let go of Eto'o and Henry, while transitioning Messi into a false 9 role, and bringing along the likes of Busquets (criticized to the hilt in the beginning, was about to join Juventus at one point), Pedro and the likes. He has evidenced the ability to handle transitions, as great as Barcelona were. And he showed the ability to take them to a level than surpassed even Cruyff's Dream Team. That's a massive, massive accomplishment. Similar for Ancelotti. Milan weren't some all conquering juggernaut when he took charge. They had changed 3 managers in just one season, were lagging far behind Juventus. He had to assimilate the newly bought Inzaghi, Pirlo, Nesta, Seedorf into the team, while promoting young players like Kaka over Rui Costa, and raising the performances of above average players like Kaladze, Tomasson, Pancaro, Dida. And he won them the Champions League in less than 30 months since his appointment. Similar with Mourinho who took an imperfect Porto team to a UEFA Cup and Champions League title in consecutive seasons.
How is Giggs only slightly more risky when compared with managers like that, who have proven it at the highest level possible, and Giggs is just an assistant manager with a managerial record spanning 4 caretaker games? The United managerial post is just another top, top job from an objective standpoint, we're not super special. Every big club has traditions, every big club has expectations, every big club has a great history, and those managers are well equipped to deal with that.
