-Credit:Howard Harrison / Salford City FC
The glory initially came in a rush for the Class of 92 when they invested in Salford City. They rose rapidly through the leagues and entered the EFL in 2019 after four promotions in five years. But throughout a decade in charge, one milestone remained tantalisingly out of reach.
Three times the Ammies reached the FA Cup second round, and three times they lost. There have been league titles, trips to Wembley for play-off finals and cup finals, but never entrance into the holy grail for many non-league and Football League teams. Until now.
When it finally arrived, it was worth waiting for. Salford City beat Cheltenham Town 2-0 in December and then promptly saw the draw throw up a narrative-laden trip to face Manchester City. Karl Robinson’s League Two high-flyers will probably be in for a rough reception at the Etihad, given the club’s links to the other footballing giant in Manchester.
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Salford City are owned by Gary and Phil Neville, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes, David Beckham and Ryan Giggs. None of that group are used to warm welcomes at Manchester City. Butt and Scholes will be in attendance on Saturday, but Giggs will be in the line of fire most of all.
The 51-year-old is the director of football at Salford City but also a regular presence next to Robinson in the dugout, a place he will take up at the Etihad. He is now the most hands-on member of the ownership group. He spends his working week either at the Peninsula Stadium or the club’s Littleton Road training ground, a place loaded with history for the club’s owners as United’s old training ground.
On Tuesday, Giggs sat in a hospitality box at the stadium to speak to the MEN and reflected on the Class of 92’s 10-year ownership of Salford City, why the thrill of being in charge remains as strong as ever and what the future holds for himself.
But after a barnstorming run of form has thrown them into the automatic promotion spots, all eyes are on their FA Cup third-round debut this week. Giggs is friendly with Pep Guardiola, seeing him in Manchester fairly often and playing golf with the Catalan, and the fixture throws up plenty of memories for himself as well.
“My full debut was against City, that was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been on a football pitch,” he said. “Then over the years you’ve seen the transformation of City, the money coming in, and it went just from a derby to actually two teams at the top of the table going for the championship. So it evolved over the years, but, growing up in the area, it’s always been a big game for me.
“I know Pep. Coming against him as a player, he was a brilliant player, and what he’s done at City and what he’s done at Barcelona and Bayern is amazing. He’s one of the all-time great managers and amazing what he’s done in the game and got nothing but respect for Pep.
“I was looking to see who they’ve got after to see if they rest anyone. I think historically in cup games he’s always gone strong, so we expect the strongest team. For our defenders coming up against De Bruyne and Haaland it’s a brilliant test and something different than they’ll get week in, week out so yeah, in a way you want them to play their best players.”
Guardiola might be surprised to see a director of football in boots and a tracksuit shaking hands with him on Saturday, but it’s an addition to Giggs’ role that he almost fell in to but has relished since first taking up his place in the dugout in mid-October.
That came about after coach Simon Wiles left to take up a youth team role at United at the same time as assistant Alex Bruce – another Old Trafford connection – had to miss a game due to personal reasons. Giggs stepped into the breach at Crewe Alexandra and has stayed there ever since.
“Karl would have been on his own, so I decided to go on the bench,” said Giggs. “Alex came back, and I just stayed in the role, really.
“Picking the team, the tactics, on the training pitch, that is down to Karl and his staff. I’m just supporting Karl with the experience that I’ve had as an assistant and as a manager and, obviously, as a player.
“I’ve enjoyed assisting Karl. I think the experience that I can pass on to the players – of course, Karl’s got miles more experience than me, manager-wise – but I’ve got experience in the game as well. So it’s working and, until Karl says differently, I’ll be in the dugout supporting him and the lads.”
Giggs took on the role of director of football after leaving his job as Wales boss. He also had a spell in charge of United on a caretaker basis, and his time back in the dugout has reignited his desire to manage again.
Giggs is director of football at Salford City -Credit:Howard Harrison / Salford City FC
Robinson’s opposite number this weekend is a good indicator of the stresses the role can entail, with Guardiola recently admitting he is struggling to sleep at night and eat because of his worries about City’s poor run of form. Robinson himself spoke openly and eloquently about the pressures of the job in a BBC podcast, Moment of Truth, but none of it has put Giggs off.
“I’ve been a player, I’ve been an assistant, and I’ve been a manager,” he said. “As a player, you train, you go home, and you more or less forget about the game, you rest and get ready for the next training session, the next game.
“As a manager, that just doesn’t happen, it’s 24-7, you’re thinking about decisions that you’ve got to make, things that come out of the blue that you’re not expecting, so it is a stressful job, but for me at the moment I’m enjoying the thrill of being in the dugout, I’ve missed it.
“I’ve always said that eventually, I want to get back into management, but at the moment I’m really enjoying my role here at Salford.”
Away from the dugout, Giggs described his role as giving Robinson, his staff, and the players everything they need to perform and making sure there are no excuses. He has certainly helped get the club on a sounder footing, building a stronger relationship with his former club along the way.
“With my relationship with Manchester United, who have been brilliant in giving us Littleton Road, well not giving us, we pay for it, but having an opportunity where we have facilities half a mile down the road,” he said.
“They’ve played games here, 21’s games, so now we’re starting to get a relationship with United which, of course, with the owners’ history with the club, is something that maybe other people wouldn’t have got.”
Giggs with Salford City boss Karl Robinson -Credit:Howard Harrison / Salford City FC
He also insists that the owners remain as committed to the club now as they did 10 years ago, despite admitting they have plateaued in the fourth tier. In August, Gary Neville acquired Peter Lim’s stake in the club with a view to bringing in a strategic partner, but in the summer Giggs, with support from Butt and Scholes, did the recruitment work and strengthened Robinson’s squad, including bringing in five players on deadline day.
While the club have stalled in League Two, never finishing higher than seventh and ending last season in 20th, Giggs points to the work underneath that and the Class of 92’s desire to make the Ammies a smaller version of Athletic Bilbao to show progress has still been made.
“I think a lot of people from the outside have seen a sort of plateau, and we’ve been in League Two for five years, but we’ve got a Category 3 Academy now, four academy players making their debut in the first team under Karl, so we’re starting to get what the dream was at the beginning,” he said.
“It takes time, but we’ve got a team where young lads in the local area are getting chances at Salford City. They think, ‘let’s go there’. The dream always was to sort of have that Bilbao model where we get an academy and we get all the best players in the local area.
“That was always the dream right from the beginning ten years ago with the lads, and we’ve managed to start doing that. Because we got given a chance when we were younger and we want to give young players a chance if they’re good enough to to perform here and experience men’s football.”
Salford have been overtaken as the EFL’s upwardly mobile club with a glamorous ownership structure by Wrexham. They are on track to achieve the Class of 92’s ambition of taking a club from non-league to the Championship.
Giggs says the owners here have “nothing but respect” for what Wrexham have done, pointing to the size of the club and the support they have received from the local council and the Welsh FA. For Salford and the Class of 92, the ambition remains the Championship, and Giggs said the owners’ WhatsApp group remains as alive as ever on a matchday.
“The buzz is huge. Saturday or every Tuesday night, the messages with the lads is consistent,” he said. “You can see when we concede a goal the disappointment, when we get a win, the happiness within the group and it’s bigger than ever, the interest and we were always in it for the long term.
“We have plateaued but where we are now there’s been a lot of work that’s gone on behind the scenes with the training ground, with the facilities, with the academy and we’re in a good place.”
On Saturday, Salford City will take 5,500 fans to the Etihad, and Giggs hopes they will like what they see. He knows they will need to continue getting the local community on board to achieve their ambition of reaching the Championship.
“I think we only need two or three per cent of Salford’s population [to fill the stadium], so we’ve proven that we can do it Saturday,” said Giggs.
“We just hope that everyone goes and enjoys the game and thinks, ‘yeah, I fancy a bit of that every Saturday’ because we do play front-foot football, attacking football, really the philosophy of the Class of 92, how we played as a youth team and we’ve always said that to the coaches coming in, that’s how we want to play and we’re doing that right now.
“Maybe it won’t be as front foot as it has been in the league on Saturday, but we want the fans to go away Saturday from the Etihad and think, ‘yeah, I want to come down to the Peninsula on Saturday and support the lads in what is going to be an exciting end to the season’.”