Giggs promises Manchester United revival

Ryan Giggs has insisted it won’t be long before he and his Manchester United team-mates bounce back from their shock FA Cup exit at the hands of third-tier Leeds.

Manchester United’s 1-0 loss at their Old Trafford home last weekend was one of the most stunning Cup upsets of recent seasons.

But with United second in the Premier League, in the semi-finals of the League Cup and through to the knockout phase of Europe’s Champions League, there is every chance of Giggs, English football’s most decorated player, adding to his 11 league, two European Cups and two League Cup winners’ medals.

“It has always been the same here, one defeat and it is a disaster,” Giggs said Thursday ahead of United’s league match against Birmingham on Saturday.

“That is never going to change,” the Welshman added.

“But we don’t get carried away with that, just the same as we wouldn’t get carried away if we had won 10 on the bounce.

“It is up to us to work hard and get back to winning ways.

“We are still in a strong position in the league and we are still in the Champions League.

“The turn of the year is when we are notoriously at our best.

“We have a great team at the moment and I still believe there is more for me to win.”

Giggs, 36, was speaking after receiving the freedom of Salford, which adjoins to the west the larger city of Manchester.

Although born and initially brought up in Cardiff, Giggs moved north aged seven when his father signed to play for the Swinton rugby league club.

“I played for Salford Boys at both rugby and football. The United training ground was at Broughton, my kids were born in Hope Hospital,” Giggs recalled.

“Everything big that has happened in my life has happened in Salford.”

Giggs, a one club-man throughout his professional career, said he was close to following in his father’s footsteps and opting for rugby rather than football until, as a teenager, he met United manager Sir Alex Ferguson for the first time.

“I moved to the area originally because my dad was a rugby player and I played rugby from being 10 or 11,” Giggs said. “I was certainly undecided.

“But at 13 I met the manager – and that was the end of that.”