What on earth would make anyone think Ryan Giggs is the answer for Manchester United?

Manchester United need Ryan Giggs to be the new Pep Guardiola.

Those, according to a respected Manchester Evening News reporter, are the stakes if Giggs is to replace Louis van Gaal at Old Trafford.

Is Giggs the new Guardiola? Well, he might be. In the same way that Mary Berry might be brilliant at judo if she only gave it a shot.

It's not impossible - just exceedingly unlikely.

What does being the New Pep actually entail?

In Giggs's case, the 'simple' job is to guide the club to immediate, massive success; to imprint a clear and unique playing style that is the envy of the football world; to be widely hailed as one of the three or four best out of all the thousands of football managers in the world. All from a standing start.

Oh, and here's where it's actually even harder for Giggs. Manchester United are a mess. Where Barcelona have a magnificent academy system, geared to developing youngsters to perfect a specific style of play - Pep's style - United's youth system is a shambles. The Under-18s have lost their last 11 games, and the homegrown players Van Gaal has thrust into first-team action seem manifestly not up to it.

There will be no class of '92 for Giggs. No group of players steeped in the club's winning culture. He will inherit a ragbag of expensive but ill-fitting imports, and if he wants to remodel the side he will probably have to bring in a load more.

The next Manchester United manager faces a huge, multifaceted job of regeneration - while under enormous pressure. So as well as the New Pep, Giggs needs to be the New Fergie.

But Alex Ferguson needed the best part of five years to sort the club out - time that Giggs will simply not be allowed in the modern age.

Right - so he has to be the New Pep and the New Fergie. Only he has to do all the Fergie stuff much quicker.

And what credentials does Giggs bring to this Herculean task? Well, he did play a LOT of football for Manchester United.

He worked under David Moyes and Van Gaal. And his four-match managerial career has yielded a skyscraping 50% win ratio.

The Manchester United job would be a big enough challenge for those who have proven themselves among the world's best - Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti.

Why on earth would United entrust it to a novice with no experience? Giggs brings hope but absolutely no track record. When Ed Woodward needs his sink fixing, does he pluck passers-by off the street because they look like they might be expert plumbers? What on earth would make anybody think that Ryan Giggs was the answer?

Admittedly, those at the club have seen more of Giggs in coaching action than the rest of us, but do we have any inkling what his ideas are?

He'll be immensely popular with fans - a significant advantage in the short run. But then what?

We can imagine he would try to win more matches, and do so by trying to score more goals - but what will the Giggs brand of football look like? What will be his approach to management look like?

Surely the luxury of being one of the world's biggest and most prestigious football clubs is you don't need to take a punt on an unknown quantity.

Instead of looking for the new Pep, why not give the current Pep a try? And if you can't get him, there's Jose Mourinho - only the most relentless winner in football - trying desperately to land the job.

Right now, Mourinho is to Ed Woodward what a One Direction fan is to Harry Styles. And if it all seems a bit hot and heavy, keep in mind that United would almost certainly win major silverware with him in charge.

Sure, he might set fire to the building in a couple of years, but at least he'd be setting fire to a building belonging to Premier League champions.

If United's persistence with Lame Duck Louis seems indecisive and ruinous to the 2015/16 campaign - the flip side is that maybe Woodward is doing his job.

There are some outstanding candidates available, and maybe he is making sure he can secure the very best before blowing up the Van Gaal era.

Clearly, Giggs does not belong among the outstanding candidates. He might do one day, when he has a body of work to bolster his credentials - but not today.

Instead of worrying that Giggs might leave if he doesn't get the job, United should encourage him to go.