There are times when Ryan Giggs dares to wonder what might have been. He had been told that he was the next in line, groomed as Manchester United’s manager-in-waiting, but when the moment came, the demand was for revolution, not evolution.

“FA Cup final day last year,” he says, recalling the discovery, in the aftermath of victory over Crystal Palace at Wembley, that Louis van Gaal was to be moved on a year ahead of schedule and José Mourinho had been lined up to replace him. “It was the same time as Louis found out. I didn’t find out officially, but I knew. And even if José had wanted me, I knew that was me done at the club.”

We are sitting at the Peninsula