Whisper it, but you can see similarities between Manchester United and Liverpool with this whole managerial malaise.

Liverpool’s 2010 appointment of Roy Hodgson was a disaster as the current England manager took charge of one of England’s footballing institutions and tried to install a small club mentality.

David Moyes has been accused of doing the same in his spell at Old Trafford, constantly talking about “trying” and approaching games in the most un-United manner possible, trying not to lose rather than trying to win.

Moyes’s tenure and the manner in which he was sacked has left a dark cloud over Manchester United so the club, like Liverpool in 2010, did the smartest thing possible.

They brought in a club legend to smooth things over. While Liverpool appointed Kenny Dalglish for the long term, Manchester United have only appointed Ryan Giggs as an interim manager but it has already had the desired effect.

Fans are clearly optimistic about the Giggs appointment — even if it is for only four games — believing that it should see the Reds get back to their old selves with an emphasis on exciting attacking football.

The new boss wasted no time further appeasing fans and renewing acquaintances with the past by bringing Paul Scholes back into the fold, another move that was greeted with enthusiasm by supporters.

Something so simple, it was a move that Moyes failed to make, with Scholes believing that the Scot was attempting to fob him off.

He did return to Old Trafford briefly to assist former team-mate and another member of Giggs’s staff, Nicky Butt, as he took care of the under-19s first foray in the Uefa Youth League but as they exited the competition, Scholes again departed.

Now part of the first team coaching set up there is an optimism that one of the game’s most gifted players can add something to a team in severe need of a boost.

It’s a move that appears to have worked too — United as a team and a club seemed revitalised in Saturday’s win against Norwich.

While there were no stand-out individual performances — a clearly unfit Rooney was dire prior to his goals — as a team United shone.

In the second half particularly there was an excitement about United’s play that has rarely been seen this season.

Old Trafford too was rocking, especially the Stretford End where Giggs’ name, along with the members of his coaching staff, was sung incessantly.

Rather than singing about standing by a failing manager, the fans sang in celebration of one of their own, a man that could very easily have been sat in the stands singing with them.

A short term appointment, nobody expects United to suddenly turn into juggernauts. There were moments when the team laboured in the first half.

It must be remembered that while he has been a first-team coach this season and has coached the starting 11 under Sir Alex Ferguson, Giggs is extremely inexperienced.

People questioned Moyes’s credentials when appointed United manager but at least he had 11 years of Premier League management. Giggs has none.

But what Giggs does have is an understanding of the club, something that Moyes perhaps never grasped, and a connection with the players, something that Moyes failed to maintain. 

A number of names have been mentioned in regards to who will take over from Giggs this summer, but almost all will come with the stipulation that Ryan Giggs is involved in their set-up, most likely as assistant manager.

So while he is inexperienced now, who is to say in three or four years that the Welsh wizard won’t be ready to step into the Old Trafford dugout in a more permanent role?

Chudi Onwuazor is co-editor of PrideOfAllEurope.com