Michael John Giles (born 6 November 1940) is an Irish former association football player and manager best remembered for his time as a midfielder with Leeds United in the 1960s and 1970s.

After winning an FA Cup winner's medal under Matt Busby at Manchester United, Giles moved to Leeds in 1963 where he played in midfield alongside captain Billy Bremner.

In his later years in football, Giles pursued a managerial career which saw him installed as player-manager and manager of, among others, West Bromwich Albion, the Republic of Ireland, Vancouver Whitecaps and Shamrock Rovers.

[1] After repeated encouragement from childhood friend Eamon Dunphy, Giles inadvertently entered the world of football punditry in 1986 and became a senior analyst on RTÉ Sport until 2016.

Also, he writes two columns per week for the Irish Evening Herald newspaper, and offers his opinions about the game on radio station Newstalk 106.

Giles grew up in Ormond Square, a working class area of inner-city Dublin, where he developed many of the skills that would aid him in becoming a professional footballer.

This was due to the outsider status of association footballers in the mainstream sports-life of the Republic, where Gaelic Games were a much more dominant force in the '50s of his youth.

Manchester United won the FA Cup in 1963, where Giles played the defence-splitting pass which started the move towards a winning goal by David Herd.

Giles formed a strong partnership with Billy Bremner as Leeds manager Don Revie built a new team around them.

Leeds regained the Fairs Cup but lost the League title on the last day, with Arsenal getting the victory they needed to earn the championship and form one half of a successful "double" bid.

In 1974, a 29-match unbeaten run at the start of the season helped Leeds coast to their second title, but then controversy reigned after Revie quit to take over the England team.

The board instead appointed Brian Clough, a brilliant manager but a controversial choice as he had been publicly critical of Leeds in the past and was not an admirer of Revie.

After appearing in the 1975 final, which Leeds lost 2–0 to Bayern Munich, Giles accepted an offer in June 1975 from West Bromwich Albion to become their player-manager, while still playing for and managing the Irish team.

[9] High tributes have been conferred on Giles by hugely successful former managers such as Alf Ramsey, Matt Busby and Brian Clough.

This occurred when he suffered a career-threatening ankle injury at the hands of Birmingham City's Johnny Watts, and knee ligament damage sustained when tackled by Eddie McCreadie at Stamford Bridge.

Giles showed much promise as a young player-manager of the Republic of Ireland, as he combined his duties in charge of West Brom, where after a slow start, he won the majority of Baggies supporters over.

Giles even tendered his resignation over the matter on the day promotion was secured, although he was persuaded to change his mind and oversee the First Division campaign.

He returned to the Hawthorns for a second spell as manager during the 1983–84 season, steering the side to safety despite losing his first game in charge 1–0 to Third Division Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup.

[15] Youth team manager Nobby Stiles, who was also Giles' brother-in-law, replaced him although, despite a slight improvement in results, the club could not climb off the foot of the table and, under Ron Saunders, finished in bottom place.

In the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, the side finished only two points short of qualification, defeating France at home during that campaign.

He resigned at Milltown on 3 February 1983, after having left his Ireland job in March 1980, and ventured across the Atlantic for spells in charge of clubs in the North American Soccer League.

Giles later returned to Ireland and settled into a much-admired career in journalism and started out as a pundit on Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) in November 1986.

Giles contributed to RTÉ Sport's coverage of the 2010 World Cup[17][18] where prior to it starting he correctly predicted Spain would win the tournament.

No matter what formation you play you have to pass the ball to each other.He was also part of RTÉ Sport's studio coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

[26] The inaugural event in 2011 was met with negative criticism, as the main walk ending at the Aviva Stadium was marred by inadequate toilet facilities at the stadium endpoint, along with expensively-priced food, a lack of bottled water and the absence of Republic of Ireland senior international footballers, whose attendance at the event had been promised, all of which went on to be discussed on RTÉ Radio 1's Liveline programme.