Swansea eye Koeman and Bilic as Giggs rules himself out
Former Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs has ruled himself out of the running for the vacant Swansea manager’s job.
Giggs has been linked with the role along with Ronald Koeman, Tony Pulis and Louis van Gaal, after the Premier League’s bottom club sacked Paul Clement.
With the Swans looking for a third boss in less than 12 months, Giggs was asked if he was interested in managing a club he was linked with before Bob Bradley was appointed in October 2016.
In a succinct reply, Giggs told Sky Sports News: “No. I’ve spoken to them before, last time before they appointed Bob Bradley.”
Asked why things had gone wrong at Swansea, Giggs speculated that the sales of Gylfi Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente in the summer had weakened the squad.
He said: “I don’t know, I’m not in the club but obviously over the years (it has been) a really well run club, (who) play the right way and are an established Premier League team.
“But it’s tough now, you see the teams down there. It gets tougher each year. They lost good players, didn’t they? They lost Sigurdsson, they lost Llorente, and probably never replaced them. That’s always a problem.”
Clement had saved Swansea from relegation after being appointed in January but his departure was confirmed less than 48 hours after the 3-1 loss at Everton on Monday night – Swansea’s ninth defeat in 11 games.
Following Clement’s sacking, chairman Huw Jenkins said in a statement on the official Swansea website: “To change the manager, especially at only the halfway point of the season, is the last thing we wanted to do as a club.
“We had three different managers last season and as a result we all wanted to give Paul as much time as possible to turn things around.
“But we felt we couldn’t leave it any longer and needed to make a change to give us the best chance of an uplift and a turnaround in fortunes with the club bottom of the Premier League.
“Paul has been at the club for 12 months and what he achieved in the second half of last season to keep us in the top flight was a tremendous feat.
“I have had an excellent working relationship with Paul and we are all, including the owners, surprised and disappointed it hasn’t worked out this season.
“We wish Paul every success in his career going forward.”
Clement had hoped to be given funds by the club’s American owners to strengthen the squad in the January transfer window but, after his side collected just 12 points from their opening 18 fixtures, has now been shown the door along with assistants Nigel Gibbs and Karl Halabi.
Sky Sports are reporting that Koeman and Bilic are in the running for the job, but Pulis is not a candidate at this time.