The news is that Manchester United are reportedly cranking things up a notch in their efforts to persuade Zinedine Zidane to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Old Trafford with pressure increasing on the incumbent manager as United lie sixth in the league after conceding 7 goals in two games to Liverpool and Manchester City.
Despite seemingly surviving his three-game stay of execution, the Red Devils gaffer’s job is barely hanging by a thread that could snap anytime. As it is, new is already proliferating with each increasing day that different managerial prospects have been allegedly contacted and etcetera by the United top hierarchy with a view to seriously move the Norwegian manager out when the time is right.
One of the hottest prospects is of course Zinedine Zidane, 49, who is currently without a club having stepped down from Real Madrid for a second time at the end of last season under undue stress and duress, and reportedly needing a break from his immensely hectic schedule last season at Los Blancos.
Stacked against even any other CV in the top flight, the Frenchman’s record at Real Madrid is as impressive as they come, with no less than three Champions League, and two LaLiga, titles under his management belt during both his scintillating spells with the Los Madridistas. The United hierarchy would no doubt be salivating at just the mere thought of having the accomplished master strategist and tactician be their head coach but it’s been said that he is somehow yet to be convinced that the United job would be the one that’s right up his alley.
It has also been reverentially whispered that Zidane has a soft spot for the gaffer’s post at Paris Saint-Germain as well as the French international team should either Mauricio Pochettino or Didier Deschamps vacate their posts for whatever reasons in the immediate future. That aside, apparently no other managerial positions are of immediate interest to him for the time being, although things could well change in an instant football moment, especially if the offers are sweetened considerably.
It has now been said United are now hopeful that his relationships with Cristiano Ronaldo and Raphael Varane at Los Blancos can help convince him to shift his focus to Old Trafford as the place to be at for the next phase of his career as he was the one instrumental in coaching both players during his time at Real Madrid.
The Frenchman’s already established propensity for delivering trophies and his penchant for developing younger players at the Los Blancos is said to be scoring immensely valuable points with the United top hierarchy as both the traits match up perfectly with the ‘cultural reboot’ story that United have fed to their famished supporters during Solskjaer’s time at the club.
Unlike Zidane, obviously, Solskjaer has failed to win even a single trophy during his three-year spell at Old Trafford after having originally joined as an interim manager in 2018 who subsequently had the break to be made full manager after having delivered the goods in the beginning. And the patience is already wearing immensely thin among the club’s long-waiting supporters, even those who had given the legendary ‘Baby-Faced Assassin’ their full support.
December had originally been set aside by United to discuss their Norwegian manager’s future but this has been clouded by the constant interjection of fresh streams of questions over his future since the humiliating loss at the hands of Liverpool and their cross-town rivals Manchester City. The possibility is now not at all remote that the gaffer’s future would be discussed much earlier.
United is said to have drawn up a four-man shortlist comprising Zidane, Antonio Conte, Erik ten Hag and Brendan Rodgers to replace Solskjaer as head coach.
Conte had shown keen interest but couldn’t wait indefinitely for the job to become available, and opted instead for the Tottenham job after the sacking of Nuno Espirito Santo.
Leicester City’s Rodgers is now allegedly poised as the favorite to take the job, though there are some niggardly concerns over his past links to Liverpool who he managed from 2012 to 2015.