Ryan Starting Over In New Role

Ryan Giggs accepted a role as player-coach earlier this summer, and when Inside United magazine caught up with this month, he spoke about his new role in depth...

Ryan, how was your summer and how do you feel physically ahead of the new season... ready to go?
Personally, I feel good. I shut down for about three weeks after the season finished but then started going to the gym a couple of times on holiday after that. I also did a bit of swimming, some golf and a few runs. I was in Turkey doing my coaching badges with Gary Neville so we were training partners, which was good. In training, things have been great to so far and everyone is working hard.

Can you explain a bit more about your role - have you got a clear idea of what you'll be doing as a player and coach?
It's a case of seeing how things go and I'm sure it'll evolve as time goes on. With a lot of the old staff leaving, I think the manager wanted to have that continuity and bringing Phil [Neville] back has added to that and that's good for the manager to have. I'm excited to be learning and working with a new boss after working with the old one for so long, and so far things have worked really well.

The average fan is perhaps not clear on how coaching badges and qualifications work - we hear about A and B licences, Pro licences... where are you up to in your education and are you enjoying that side of things?
It's been really enjoyable. As I say, I've been working on my coaching badges this summer. We were in Turkey for eight days at the U20s European Championships and we watched a lot of games. It was about scouting at games and putting presentations together. It was good. There are 21 of us on the course. You spend a lot of time together and I've learnt a lot from other managers and coaches. There's a massive array of different levels of coaching on the course from Premier League to League One to the Conference... I've really enjoyed it. We've got a year to go with three more meet-ups so we're nearly there.

At what stage of your career did you decide that you definitely wanted to go down the coaching route?
I wanted to be as prepared as I could for finishing playing. I've always concentrated on playing but I've been doing my badges too. It's been tough at times because it is quite time-consuming but I'm really glad I've done it. Five years ago I didn't think I'd still be playing at this age so I wanted to make sure I was prepared when I finished so I started doing my coaching badges then.

How does your new role fit in alongside Steve Round (assistant manager), Jimmy Lumsden (first team coach), and Phil Neville (coach)?
I'll just do what I can to help them. They've been really good with me. I'm new to it and I'll be learning along the way. It's like starting all over again in a way. But I've been really lucky at how the lads have helped me so far and I hope I can help them.