United is the impossible job – Southgate would be perfect
When a television production company first approached Graham Taylor with the idea of allowing cameras to follow him around as England manager, it was supposed to be part of a series called The Worst Job In The World that documented different professions. Taylor was open to giving real insight into how tough it was being manager of the national team, but when there was little interest in the proposal from TV companies – either the full series or focusing on Taylor – so the production company, Chrysalis Sport, decided to fund it themselves.
The end product was as excruciating as it was astonishing, documenting Taylor’s failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, which cost him the job. It was broadcast on Channel 4 in January 1994, titled: The Impossible Job. And the England job has often been considered such ever since. The Impossible Job – it is a title that could well be applied to the Manchester United managerial role in 2024. Though United have resisted the itch to allow Netflix or Amazon Prime cameras behind the scenes like many of their peers, so much behind-the-scenes disgruntlement oozes out via unattributed accounts from players and their agents. Erik ten Hag, the manager, must still face the cameras several times a week to answer questions about all the misery, even though he would probably rather not. Prominent former player pundits, such as Gary Neville and Roy Keane, frequently savage every inch of the club, creating soundbites that go viral.
The intensity is brutal – just look at the way Marcus Rashford lurches from local hero to hounded pariah based on his form at any particular time. At least Rashford does not have to stand in front of cameras and voice recorders dozens of times a month.
You could see the exasperation with it all in the sheer fury of Ten Hag’s response to the reaction to guiding United to a second FA Cup final in successive years.
Sure, it wasn’t pretty against Coventry in the semi-final. Three ahead, a late collapse requiring a penalty shootout to beat the Championship club.
On BBC radio it was described as the most humiliating victory in the club’s history. Others said Ten Hag had reached the end of the road. Asked about it in his subsequent press conference, Ten Hag labelled the reaction “embarrassing” and a “disgrace”. But that’s what managing Manchester United has become – that’s the level.
Simply reaching cup finals isn’t good enough. It has to be done in a way befitting of Manchester United. Or, more accurately, what Manchester United used to be. Ever since Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down in 2013 nothing has ever been good enough. Everything is compared to one of – if not the – greatest manager in history.
All achievements are placed on one side of a scale, weighed against those of a manager who delivered 13 Premier League trophies in 20 years, an achievement that may well never be matched or beaten. He delivered two Champions Leagues and another final. And so much more.
Since Ferguson, the job has seen off Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. It sent David Moyes’s career into such a death spiral it took him almost a decade to recover.
It hasn’t been great: meandering from second to seventh, a few trophies here and there. But the weight of expectation creating a vicious cycle of failure probably hasn’t helped either.
Lose to Arsenal at Old Trafford tomorrow – a fixture that will evoke memories of the two sides going toe-to-toe for the title in years gone by – and it will be a disaster. In reality, Arsenal are a title-chasing squad and Manchester United are mid-table. Lose to Manchester City in the FA Cup final and there will be further inquests. Even though their chances of winning are slim.
But there is a manager out there, who has been under consideration to replace Ten Hag should he be sacked, who has proven that the “Impossible Job” can be made possible.
The England job is barely recognisable today from when Gareth Southgate took over in 2016. Nobody was queuing up to take the job after decades of mediocrity, a newspaper sting having ended Sam Allardyce’s brief spell in charge, a sense that the incumbent was eternally destined for failure. Even Southgate wasn’t keen initially.
Southgate completely overhauled the culture of the England senior men’s team, transforming it from a deeply unpleasant environment divided by club rivalries, where players, particularly Manchester United ones under Ferguson, would routinely skip unimportant camps with minor injuries, to a place players loved to come.
A place where stars had routinely underperformed changed into one where they overperformed. An England side with Jesse Lingard in central midfield reached the World Cup semi-finals.
Overhauling a culture is exactly what Manchester United require. If he were to be handed the job, Southgate would undoubtedly face heavy criticism and be under immense pressure to turn public opinion around from the off.
That is no different to when he became England manager. “Maybe we’ve made the impossible just look possible,” Southgate said a few years ago, when asked about Mauricio Pochettino saying he was interested in the England job and Thomas Tuchel making it known he would be up for it. Maybe making the impossible look possible makes him the perfect manager to take on the worst job in the world at Old Trafford.