What is the best piece of advice Ryan Giggs has been given about becoming a manager? “Don’t think like a player,” he replies. “There are a lot of similarities: you have to prepare yourself, you have to work hard. But don’t think like a player, because you are not just looking after yourself. Players are selfish.”

Giggs is sitting in the Club Wembley lounge ahead of the Community Shield.

It is the first summer, the 42-year-old reflects, since he was 16 that he has not been involved in the intensity of pre-season preparations, and he is comfortable with that. Giggs has cut the cord, the 29-year association with Manchester United, who play later that afternoon, and done so for one simple, logical reason.