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Manchester United chief executive Ed Woodward faces grilling as club try to finalise deal for Louis van Gaal

Ryan Giggs is likely to remain at the club as assistant to the Dutchman

Ian Herbert
Thursday 15 May 2014 10:44 BST
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Manchester United are wrapping up the fine details of Louis van Gaal's appointment as manager, ahead of a public grilling by New York Stock Exchange analysts today at which chief executive Ed Woodward will be asked to explain how he will deliver the club's recovery.

Ahead of an managerial appointment which may come today, Ryan Giggs’ anticipated meeting with Van Gaal took place at his penthouse apartment of Noordwijk, on the North Sea coast. Giggs was later pictured at 2pm leaving the nearby five-star Hotel Orangerie , where he had stayed overnight before the meeting. He flew back to watch last night’s Premier League Cup final at Old Trafford, in which Chelsea beat Manchester United. Their meeting formed part pf a longer discussion between Van Gaal and Woodward.

The confirmation of Giggs’ future as Van Gaal’s no 2 was one of the topics for discussion. But Van Gaal is also understood to have wanted to talk about some of the players who will be arriving and leaving United this summer. When joining a new club, he has always viewed an insider's opinion as critical on which young players offer best potential for development.

Woodward's appearance before business analysts has created an urgency about the first face-to-face talks between Van Gaal and Giggs – who flew in by private jet and was chauffeur-driven to the hotel.

The chief executive will be questioned publicly on his search for a successor to David Moyes when he appears for a conference call coinciding with United's third-quarter financial results. The 20 minutes of questions, which start at 1pm, are likely to see the chief executive underline the club's ambition to respond immediately after a disastrous season in which they have fallen out of Europe.

The analysts' briefing can take place at a time and date of United's choosing and will have been a landmark in the front of minds at the club. United need to resurrect their share price, and their on-field fortunes. The three months which today's results relate to actually saw United progress to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, boosting their revenues, though they expect the focus of the conversation to be on the future.

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