NO CASH NO SAY NO HOPE
Rangnick’s United fairytale turns sour
RALF RANGNICK will have to rescue Manchester United’s season without going into the transfer market.
United’s interim manager has been frustrated by his club’s reluctance to back him with cash for new players after he
made a number of recommendations for the January window following his arrival at Old Trafford in November.
Rangnick understood that he would have some scope to make signings this month after agreeing to take the reins until the end of the season.
He has been tasked with landing a topfour place and Champions League qualification.
But with United chiefs reluctant to hand money to a manager who will only be in charge for six months, sources in Germany say he feels he is working with one hand tied behind his back.
Concerned
That has also led to Rangnick becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of influence he will wield when he takes up a two-year consultancy role in the summer.
The German expected to play a key role in the process to identify and recruit a new manager to take United forward.
And he also believed he would oversee how the club go about their business in the transfer market.
But it is only 10 months since the Reds made John Murtough the club’s first football director and appointed Darren Fletcher as technical director.
Richard Arnold is set to replace
Ed Woodward as chief executive next month and he plans to step away from the minutiae of transfer negotiations.
But Murtough is expected to move into that role – leaving Rangnick sidelined.
The 63-year-old German has struggled to impose his ideas on the squad he inherited from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Rangnick admitted: “We had some talks about transfers last week, with John Murtough, Ed and Richard. We spoke about it, but I am not involved in that directly.”
United are looking towards Mauricio Pochettino, Erik ten Hag and Brendan Rodgers as they plan for next season and beyond. The Old Trafford hierarchy are believed to favour Paris Saint-germain coach Pochettino, who has experienced English football with both Tottenham and
Southampton.
Rangnick, however, is impressed with Ten Hag given that the Dutchman enjoys working under the control of a director of football at Ajax.
Rangnick, the socalled godfather of gegenpressing, feels he does not have the personnel to overhaul United’s playing style.
Within days of his arrival at Old Trafford, he contacted his former club RB Leipzig to put a £33million deal for midfielder Amadou Haidara in motion.
But United have yet to lodge a bid for the 23-year-old Mali international, who is currently playing for his country at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Haidara was a boyhood United fan, but the Reds’ inertia has alerted the Saudi Arabian owners of struggling Newcastle as they look to bring in players capable of winning a relegation battle.
Unhappy
Any movement in the transfer market at Old Trafford would be complicated by the fact that the Reds already have a full quota of 25 players aged over 21 in their first-team squad.
United are trying to shift unhappy striker Anthony Martial during the window.
But while Sevilla are interested in taking the £60m Frenchman on loan, they can’t afford to pay all of his £200,000-a-week wages.
Rangnick’s impact on the quality of the team’s performances has been negligible, with the German admitting that the players have struggled to grasp the concepts he is trying to introduce. And reports have now emerged that the players feel that Rangnick’s coaching methods are old fashioned
and outdated.
With United reluctant to hand money to a manager who will only be in charge for six months sources in Germany say Rangnick feels he is working with one hand tied behind
his back