REDS NEED SOMEONE LIKE SIMEONE TO MAKE THEM TRUE DEVILS AGAIN
WHEN it was put to Paul Scholes on Wednesday that his old side had just produced a ‘strange’ performance against Atletico Madrid, the former Manchester United midfielder took exception.
It wasn’t strange, he argued, but typical of the kind of displays seasoned United watchers have grown accustomed to under Ralf Rangnick. Scholes was right.
They were outplayed and out-thought for much of the game, but, through a mixture of good fortune and tenacity, were able to stay in the game just long enough to keep the tie alive through Anthony Elanga’s late equaliser.
It was a performance reminiscent of Rangnick’s reign, with United dogged rather than dazzling, persistent rather than poetic under the They are a team that eke out results rather than easing to them as they would have done back in the halcyon days of Sir Alex Ferguson.
In many ways, United are now to the Premier League what Atletico were to La Liga when Diego Simeone took over 10-and-a-half years ago.
They are a team looking to bloody a few noses in the title race, but one that will be thereabouts rather than there at the final reckoning.
That is why Simeone (below) would be the best option for chief executive Richard Arnold and his board this summer as they seek a full-time manager.
The Argentinian would know what it would take to make them competitive over the course of 38 games – and how to implement it.
United’s players need someone with the management skills to marry the doggedness they possess with a style of football that is enjoyable to watch, too. They need someone who will command inGerman. stant respect and Simeone would tick all those boxes.
Unlike Rangnick, Simeone is current, he is a regular trophy winner and United’s players would have no choice but to listen to him.
He has won La Liga twice with Atletico and it took him just three seasons to upset the applecart in La Liga to do it the first time.
Simeone has won the Europa League and Super Cup twice, and taken them to three Champions League finals.
He has won domestic cups, too, and, if he can do that with a club the size of Atletico, then he can do it with United.
He’d instantly command more respect than Erik ten Hag, the Ajax boss whose record boasts two titles in a league that’s a far cry from the Premier League.
And he can rattle his medals in a way Mauricio Pochettino – who would perhaps be the best long-term hire – simply cannot.
Poch will also have options in the summer in a way Simeone wouldn’t.
If Paris Saint-Germain see off Real in the Champions League, then the Bernabeu job might become available and what if Manchester City were crowned champions of Europe? Would Pep Guardiola decide it was the right time to head for the hills?
It’s difficult to imagine Simeone being be offered any of those jobs if they came up, and the word is that PSG would turn to Antonio Conte if they called time on Poch anyway.
Incidentally, Conte would be another great fit for the current United.
But certainly no better a fit than the Don of Doggedness himself, Simeone.