As Manchester United's struggles continue, Ryan Giggs' infamous comments about the Red Devils 'never collapsing like Liverpool' have re-emerged once again
It’s that time of year again: Manchester United are in crisis and are seemingly on the brink of sacking yet another manager. So, of course, it’s time to dust off the most infamous of headlines featuring Red Devils legend Ryan Giggs.
We have all seen the Daily Mirror article in question from January 2011 countless times over the years. But that does not stop from it once again rearing its head every time all is not well at Old Trafford.
“Giggs: We would never collapse like Liverpool”.
Speaking ahead of an FA Cup third-round clash with the Reds on the eve of Roy Hodgson’s sacking - a game in which the Welshman would actually go on to score the winner - he was adamant that the successful foundations laid by Sir Alex Ferguson would ensure that United would never suffer a similar crisis to Liverpool - then in their 21st year since last winning the title.
"Our manager is not always looking just for this season," said Giggs at the time. "He buys players with a view to the future, which he's done more and more over the last few years…
"The manager is experienced enough to know that we'll be challenging for the league this season and long after that because of the nucleus of the squad we have, as well as adding fresh blood, which gives everyone a lift.
"Liverpool are a big club but they've obviously had massive problems off the pitch. They've had a new manager this season and new owners, and they haven't got off to the start they'd wished.
“Losing is like winning, in that it can become a habit. Once you start losing, the luck doesn't seem to go for you.”
At first glance, you afford yourself a wry chuckle and think to yourself: ‘Oh how wrong you were, Ryan. How wrong indeed.’ But let us take a step back and actually consider both Giggs’ words and United’s plight in the 13 years since Ferguson’s retirement.
For starters, let us set the record straight. Alas, the infamous headline is not a direct quote from the Welshman.
The concept is still there of course, with Giggs, wrongly, suggesting that Ferguson had ensured United would continue to challenge for titles for years to come.
They would win the Premier League title that season and reach the Champions League final, before being crowned champions of England again in 2013.
But since then, despite a couple of second-place finishes, they have never truly challenged for the title. Even in those rare seasons, they did not come close.
Yet regardless of that misstep, let us consider that perhaps Giggs was right after all. Losing is a habit and his old club now know all about it far too well.
United would never collapse like Liverpool. Rather, it has arguably been even worse. Michael Carrick is set to retain his job, for now at least, despite back-to-back emphatic defeats to Como and AFC Bournemouth.
His side currently sit 16th in the table, above the relegation zone by a solitary point with just one win to their name. Should the former England international fail to turn around the Red Devils’ fortunes, then club bosses would be left searching for their 13th different manager - including caretakers and interims - since Ferguson’s retirement back in 2013.
In those years, they have won five trophies; Two FA Cups, two League Cups and the Europa League. Meanwhile, they have qualified for the Champions League seven times courtesy of finishing second in the league twice, third three times, fourth once and winning the Europa League in 2017 alongside a sixth-place finish.
Yet they have also finished outside of the top four seven times, including the aforementioned sixth-place finish. Finishing fifth once and sixth three times, such a run also includes their three worst Premier League finishes - seventh in 2013/14, eighth in 2023/24 and 15th in 2024/25. That gives them an average finish of fifth over the past 13 seasons, boasting an average points total of 66 points.
In contrast, in the first 13 years since Liverpool’s 18th league title in 1990, they won seven trophies: Two FA Cups, three League Cups, the UEFA Cup and the European Super Cup.
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Andoni Iraola became the Reds’ 12th different manager since 1990 when appointed during the summer. In the first 13 years since that title triumph, they made seven managerial changes.
While they qualified for the Champions League only twice during such a period, it is worth remembering this was predominantly at a time before the top four automatically qualified for Europe’s elite competition.
Instead, the league champions were the sole entrants before the Premier League’s runners-up were also granted entry in 1997. Third place then qualified for the first time in 1999, with fourth place following suit for the English top-flight for the first time in 2002.
Between 1990 and 2003, Liverpool finished second twice, third three times and fourth three times, as well as securing one fifth, two sixth, one seventh and one eighth-place finish.
This gives them an average finish of fourth during such a period, while they boasted an average points total of 67 points.
Had the Reds been afforded the Champions League riches that would have been offered if for such league finishes in the post-2002 era, their hand would have inevitably been strengthened considerably.
In contrast, they struggled to compete financially with United at the top of English football throughout the nineties and noughties, with such a plight continuing into the teenties prior to the arrival of Jurgen Klopp in 2015.
At the end of the 13th year in their title drought, Emile Heskey was their club-record signing at £11m, while Liverpool spent £173m on new signings between 1990 and 2003.
United are believed to have spent over £2bn on new senior signings since Ferguson’s departure from the club in 2013, while Paul Pogba remains United’s club-record signing after being bought for a then world-record £93.5m in August 2016.
Even taking into account inflation, such totals are an eye-watering hike in comparison to the Reds’ own spending.
United are spending far more and have less to show for it during their current years in the wilderness. The Premier League’s current crisis club, regardless of how long Carrick remains in the managerial hotseat, supporters continue to vocalise their anger at both the clubs’ players and owners, with their plight showing no sign of being reversed any time soon.
But while there might not be much between their average league finish and points totals, Liverpool certainly never hit the panic button as frequently as United have since Ferguson’s retirement.
Supporters were not happy during Graeme Souness’ struggling reign, while it was arguably time for a change when Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier departed in 1998 and 2004 respectively.
But while never recapturing the heights of their seventies and eighties plump, the Reds were also never a club in full-blown crisis and never trigger-happy when it came to dismissing managers. Rather, the only time they fell to such depths, it was in the darkest depths of Tom Hicks and George Gillett’s ill-fated ownership of the club which left it on the brink of administration.
Liverpool have meandered lower than they would have liked in the league table at times, but the Reds have never been in danger of freefall.
United have collapsed monumentally, with Carrick only the latest in a long line of managers who have been left unable to reverse the rot.
Two of the loudest cheers from the Anfield crowd during Liverpool's recent victory over Brighton were reserved for their response to being informed that United were losing to Bournemouth - both at half-time and after the final whistle.
While Kopites took joy in the struggles of their bitter-rivals, there was no pointedness in such a response with the competitiveness of Carrick's side this season already extinguished. They are already the Premier League's latest figure of fun.
Losing is a habit, as Giggs warned all those years ago. And it is a habit that has engulfed Old Trafford over the past 13 years.
He might have been taunting Liverpool, at the time English football’s biggest fallen giant, but the Manchester United legend was right all along. It was just a lot closer to home than he ever envisaged.
