Rangnick eyeing United hot seat
Ruthless Delia, magic Moyes and other lessons from the weekend in the Premier League
RANGNICK INTERESTED IN UNITED JOB
IT is our understanding that there is truth to weekend reports that Ralf Rangnick would welcome an approach to succeed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should the Manchester United board opt to pull the trigger on the Norwegian. A representative from the German’s camp told Herald Sport yesterday: “Of course he would be interested. Yes. Absolutely.”
The 63-year-old nailed the issue at Old Trafford in an interview with The Times in 2019 saying: “Since Sir Alex [Ferguson] left they were underperforming. They haven’t won the title since he left. At any club, if you cannot get the right players, then you should at least not sign the wrong ones. You are in trouble if you do that in one or two or three consecutive transfer windows.”
Meanwhile, there appears to have been a strange cottage industry around keeping Solskjaer in a job. The Manchester United manager is incredibly likeable judging by his post-match interviews and the testimony of those who have worked with him and so it is understandable that those who are paid to pass comment on his tenure – many of them former team-mates – have been reluctant to criticise him.
Often it feels like a form of sophistry. Gary Neville, for example, argued in September that the club had tried other options to no avail as if there was no other choice but to persist: “They’ve had great managers, world-class managers, international managers in the building, and it’s not worked for the club or the fans.”
That seemed to have been a form of party line since it was an argument reiterated by Roy Keane at the end of United’s latest humiliating defeat by Manchester City. Keane had a point but he had performed a u-turn on his own position by the time Sky’s coverage had ended – saying he felt it was time for Solskjaer to go for his own sake.
PASS ME THE KNIFE, DARLING
WELL, who would have thought that Delia Smith was more ruthless than renowned United chief executive Ed Woodward? The TV chef – a national institution – and her co-owner and husband Michael WynnJones sacked manager Daniel Farke after Norwich City’s first win of the season at Brentford.
The Canaries have accrued just five points from their first 11 games but it still came as a surprise to hear he had been punted, not least after Norwich had just won. But the German is said not to have helped his case by complaining about the lack of quality in his squad and raising the subject of Emi Buendia’s summer sale to Aston Villa repeatedly.
Why now? Norwich are committed to a significant spend on transfer clauses next summer and so remaining in the top-flight has assumed more importance than in previous seasons. A look at some of the names linked with the job – Frank Lampard, Steve Bruce and John Terry – do not inspire confidence that they’ll achieve it. Even Lucien Favre, the former Dortmund manager, would surely baulk at what looks to be an impossible task.
BLACK MONDAY COMES TO THE PREMIER LEAGUE
IN the NFL, they call it Black Monday. It’s that day of the year when underperforming American football teams sack their head coaches at the end of the regular season.
Premier League clubs have now, seemingly, established their own de facto Black Monday – the fortnight before the last international break in the year. Newcastle United, Tottenham, Norwich and, most recently, Aston Villa have opted to remove their managers as a last throw of the dice to salvage seasons that are in danger of unmooring.
Smith’s removal seems particularly harsh. Having lost his best player in the summer it was always going to take a while for his team to hit their stride and it is only six weeks since Smith was talking about the “seeds of belief” that a victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford had brought to his squad.
Five consecutive defeats since then have been his undoing. With so many jobs going free, however, it seems only a matter of time before he is back in one.
ONE MAN WHOSE JOB IS NOT UNDER SCRUTINY IS DAVID MOYES
THE Scot is a one-man billboard for refusing to write off a manager. His spell at Manchester United tarnished his name unfairly and it felt as if he was damaged utterly by similarly ignominious spells at Real Sociedad, Sunderland – where he suffered the first relegation of his career – and his first spell at West Ham, where he had to watch as supporters
invaded the pitch and turned their ire on the club’s board.
He was reappointed in 2019 to much grumbling after the failure of the Manuel Pellegrini experiment. At the time, Moyes defended himself saying: “I think there’s only two or three managers with a better Premier
League win record. That’s what I do, I win.”
He continues to defy expectations at West Ham and judging by his side’s dismantling of Liverpool yesterday, his team are live candidates for a Champions League berth this season.