The writing was on the wall for Ralf Rangnick on Monday. It was mentioned in the fourth, 14th and 15th questions of Erik ten Hag’s introductory press conference and it was Ten Hag’s answer to the latter that was revealing.
Did he endorse Rangnick’s role as a consultant?
“That’s at the club.”
Then, in the press room, we joked that Rangnick would not be at United this time next year. Do it for a week.
Ten Hag and Rangnick never met in person, their working relationship consisted of WhatsApp messages and a long phone conversation last week.
It took United less than a week to complete Rangnick’s role as Austria’s new head coach, “making it difficult for him to spend the time he had planned working for United”.
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Rangnick accepted the role of Austria a month ago. Understandably, United waited until Ten Hag was in town to end Rangnick’s consulting role before it began.
Many at United will be delighted to see Rangnick’s back. One source said no one at the club liked his truths at home, although fans did.
The players did not have the Rangnick methods. One noted that he had begun “dropping bombs” with the diagnosis that the United team needed open-heart surgery.
Players mocked Rangnick’s resume and the murmurs were so unedifying that some called him “Specs”. Marcus Rashford was upset by Rangnick’s criticism, although Rashford and his entourage also had a bee in their hat with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho.
Rangnick only started Rashford nine times in the Premier League and if Ten Hag had used him as a sounding board, Rashford’s days at United could have been numbered. Instead, he could be compensated.
United football director John Murtough pushed for Rangnick’s appointment, his first major act, and it turned out to be the worst period in United’s recent history. Rangnick had played 81 games during the decade before his appointment on November 29 and the biggest club he had coached was Schalke. The zenith of his coaching career was reaching the 2011 Champions League semifinals when Schalke were rejected by Darron Gibson and Anderson.
Murtough pushed for Rangnick’s appointment
Rangnick’s complaints that United did not sign a striker on the day of the deadline in January frightened staff. Luis Diaz and Dejan Kulusevski, two of the best winter recruits, had major impacts on Liverpool and Tottenham, the former chasing four trophies and the latter among the top four.
The next day, in Brighton, the United press officer asked the correspondent in the press room before the start to ask Rangnick a question to invite him to clarify his comments the day before. The Red Bull man’s wings had been cut off.
Journalistically, Rangnick was a fascinating date. There was almost no pressure from the players and the counterpress the conferences were the culmination of Rangnick’s six-month term.
At a time when there is so much pretentious intellectualization in football with the superfluous “expected goals”, misleading “goal contributions”, etc., it was especially reassuring for Real Madrid to win the Champions League with a coach who simply told Rodrygo to “leave.” and score a goal “against Manchester City in the return leg of the semi-finals.
Carlo Ancelotti will be absent when it comes to coaching innovators. However, he is “the man of the record”, as he affectionately put it on the stadium of the Stade de France, with four European Cups and medals of winners of the five major leagues of Europe.
Uefa should build a monument to Ancelotti, the scourge of the so-called trinity of sportswashing in the pre-final qualifying rounds, and Sir Alex Ferguson owes his family spirit an Italian red box to face City and Liverpool .
Ancelotti: United’s true coach of the year
Ancelotti does not long for an audience that kneels his genius, unlike some of his peers. His genius is human management, as was Ferguson’s. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is proof that it is not easy to replicate.
Rangnick occasionally had human contact with Victor Lindelof, whom he comforted on the plane trip back to Manchester as the defender reconciled with the trauma of his wife and two boys taking refuge from thieves in a room. of panic. Anthony Elanga was comforted after his penalty kick against Middlesbrough.
Ultimately, the United dressing room was not ripe for an interim appointment; always a dubious decision. Rangnick will not be missed or cried, but he had the courage to analyze objectively and, with him off the payroll, United are in danger of meeting underperforming players and returning to a culture of conformity.
Ten Hag is disciplined, at least, and Rangnick’s position was not just at the club.
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