Ryan Giggs has revealed Elliot Anderson told him ‘leave me alone’ after the Manchester United legend attempted to convince him to join the club this summer.

Daily Mail Sport reported last year that Anderson had been Man United’s top midfield target for the summer transfer window, but had trailed rivals Man City in the race.

Man City would ultimately land Anderson for £116million in the summer, with Man United going on to sign Youri Tielemans, Carlos Baleba and Andrey Santos in their midfield overhaul.

Ahead of Anderson featuring in a first Manchester derby at the weekend, Giggs revealed on Rio Ferdinand Presents: The Debrief that he had attempted to convince the England star to snub Man City’s advances.

Giggs explained he had bumped into Anderson on the golf course on holiday, just ahead of the World Cup.

‘It was literally a few days before he went to the World Cup. I peppered him,’ Giggs told Ferdinand.

Ryan Giggs has claimed he tried to convince Elliot Anderson to snub Man City and join Man United

Giggs said Anderson, who later joined Man City for £116m, told him to ‘leave me alone’ as he tried to convince him to sign for the Red Devils

‘He didn’t know how to take it at first, and then he relaxed a little bit.

‘But for the first four or five holes, we were literally crossing. And at the end of it, he went, “will you just let me, leave me alone. Will you just let me play my golf, please? You’re in trouble.”‘

Ferdinand added: ‘That’s what I do when I see some players. I don’t care. 

‘You’ve got to try all sorts to get these deals over. It’s mad, though. Obviously, the price tag was crazy. And it’s just like astronomical money. And Man United ain’t got the budget to pay for that.’

Giggs, who made a club record 963 appearances and later had a spell on Man United’s coaching staff, also offered his thoughts on Marcus Rashford after his return to the club.

He claimed former Man City boss Pep Guardiola had once claimed at a dinner, which included Sir Alex Ferguson, he believed Rashford was Man United’s ‘best player’ and would ‘take him tomorrow’. 

‘There’s about eight of us, so he [Ferguson] sat me next to Pep, this was about, I’m going to say about eight or nine years ago. 

‘I’ve gone to Pep and says, “you know, who do you like at United?”, “He went, well, who do you think?”

Giggs claimed at a dinner Pep Guardiola had once claimed Marcus Rashford was the one player he would take from Man United

‘So I went, De Gea? He went, no. Luke Shaw? I was just like, no. He said the best player at Man United, Marcus Rashford. I would take him tomorrow.

‘And that just made me [think], what’s he seeing Pep? And that was obviously as a centre forward.’

Giggs also added that during his spell as Man United’s assistant manager in 2015, he had been approached by a French supporter of the club who urged him to sign a young Kylian Mbappe from Monaco.

He stated that the fan recommended Mbappe after watching a lot of youth football in France, and later emailed details to Giggs to convince him to scout the young forward.

Mbappe had made his first forays into first team football that season with Monaco, making 14 senior appearances for the Ligue 1 side during the 2015-16 campaign.    

‘Me and Albert [Stuivenberg], who’s the coach with Arsenal, he was another assistant at United at the time, we used to in the afternoons just go and watch games or go and watch players at the training ground,’ Giggs said.

‘I’ve told him about this thing, he says, “come on, let’s get him up.” And we got a few youth games with Monaco and we seen him and just like, “wow, what is this?” 

‘You know, you can see players and they can be special, but he did look exceptional, obviously.

‘We told the scouting team, they went to watch him. Someone in France went to watch him and he was actually playing PSG. Monaco were playing PSG. 

Giggs claimed in 2015 he had been approached by a Man United fan telling them to scout then Monaco teenager Kylian Mbappe

‘They went to Paris to watch him. Anyway, I think a few weeks later, I said to this guy, how did it go? He went, yeah, they weren’t too sure about him, so we just left it, and that was it.’

Mbappe had played 81 minutes against PSG in a 2-0 win in the March of the 2015-16 season, when the forward was just 17.

He would later sign for PSG for a £165million fee in August 2017 and went on to score 256 goals in 308 games for the French giants and won six league titles.

Mbappe, who joined Real Madrid on a free transfer in 2024, played a key role in France’s World Cup win in 2018 and is now the tournament’s all-time record scorer.