With a 4-0 win over Norwich at Old Trafford, Manchester United player/caretaker manager Ryan Giggs has cemented his place as the greatest football manager of all time.
Though the win came against a dire club currently in the relegation zone that even David Moyes beat earlier in the season, it was enough to convince Man United goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard that Giggs is the second coming of the impossibly successful Golden Pep.
From the BBC:
"It might sound pretty rash and naive, but, in my opinion, we are dealing with a new Guardiola," he wrote in a blog.
"What we have seen in the first week has been more than convincing.
"The similarities with Sir Alex Ferguson are striking and it is evident that Ryan Giggs has learnt from one of history's most respected football managers."
Giggs also has big bad Louis van Gaal, the man favored to become Man United's manager next season, running scared. From the Independent:
Van Gaal’s urgency will be fuelled by an awareness of the growing enthusiasm for Giggs to be handed the job and suggestions have emerged that it might be difficult to accommodate Giggs and the Class of ’92 members he has gathered together into a new set-up.
And if that isn't enough to convince you of Ryan Giggs' freshly tapped managerial brilliance, then consider that Jamie Redknapp, a man Jose Mourinho sarcastically dubbed a "brilliant football brain," says that he looks "every inch a Manchester United manager." Presumably because he wore a suit and tie with club crests affixed to them.
The way the fans have rallied behind Giggs is understandable given his position as a beloved figure and the club's current longest serving player. But after the match against Norwich, the requirements to be the manager of Manchester United seem to have been revised to "someone with undeniable experience and a track record of winning Europe's most important trophies...or just someone we really like."
To some degree, this can be put down to the fact that if you eat nothing but dog food for 10 months, even McDonald's will taste like a gourmet meal. Giggs is a familiar and comforting sight, especially following a disastrous reign by a manager who looked like this...

But that doesn't mean he should be saddled with the impossible expectations of an immediate return to sustained success that appear to be creeping over him. The man has exactly one match of managerial experience. He might one day prove to be a morally flawed Guardiola-Ferguson hybrid, but to expect him demonstrate that now seems just as dangerous as letting Moyes keep the job. Even Guardiola managed Barcelona B for a season before taking over the first team (which was in far better shape than Man United's is now).
Manchester United's remaining matches this season are against 17th-place Sunderland, 13th-place Hull and 8th-place Southampton. If they win them all, Van Gaal will probably be asked to work under Giggs.
- - - - - - -
Brooks Peck is the editor of Dirty Tackle on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him or follow on Twitter! Follow @BrooksDT