Ryan Giggs has said that a huge was void was left when Sir Alex Ferguson retired at Manchester United after winning the Premier League title
Ryan Giggs spent 29 years at Manchester United and the Welshman reflects on life at the club after Sir Alex Ferguson
RYAN GIGGS has spoken about that ill fated night when Sir Alex Ferguson called him to reveal he was retiring and would no longer be Manchester United manager at the end of the season.
Even though Giggs trained and spoke with Ferguson every day the call was a massive shock to the system that the games most glorious boss was about to hand over the reigns to someone else.
Writing in his column for the Giggs said:
''He rang me to say that he was leaving. I suppose it could have happened any summer since his first retirement announcement in 2001 that he would quit in the summer of 2002, later reversed. But somehow it still felt like a shock.''
''When I finished talking to him that evening my overriding emotion was a great sadness. He had been part of my life for so long. It hit me at different stages over the next few months. When we went back for pre-season and he was not there, and then at Christmas. He was such a massive part of all our lives, organising, nurturing, driving us.''
Giggs spent 29 years at Manchester United he was at the club as a school boy and the decision to leave in the summer came largely because of the appointment of Jose Mourinho.
During Louis Van Gaal's time at the club United's fortunes were somewhat better than the disastrous 10 months that David Moyes steered the Red Devils ship for.
But it was three years of huge differences for United fans that has seen them win just the FA Cup back in May.
Giggs went on to say:
''If you had asked me back in May 2013, having swept to our 13th Premier League title under Sir Alex with four games to spare, whether I could ever see a day when United would not at least be challenging for the title, I would have said there was no chance.
Keep up to date with ALL the Manchester United news, gossip, transfers and goals on our club page plus fixtures, results and live match commentary by clicking HERE
''Our strength as a team was too well-established. Financially, the club was huge.
The stadium is the biggest club ground in the country.''
''All the things that, for example, Liverpool had failed to do in order to ensure their long-lasting success after the 1970s and 1980s, United had done.
Yet it is already three years since United’s last title. This is not a club in trouble not on the scale of what happened to United in 1974 when they were relegated - but the standards of what went before have not been maintained.''
''Sir Alex also went three seasons without winning a league title but there was a plan and he came back with three in a row between 2006 and 2009. That is the challenge for Jose Mourinho, to put the club back up on top of the English game but there are no certainties about the future for United as there once were.''
Giggs is no longer part of the Man United set up so will be a fan from outside the club when they face Chelsea on Super Sunday a match Giggs and Ferguson would relish in their playing and managing days.