Manchester United legend and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville is not at all inclined towards the club appointing Ralf Rangnick on a permanent basis as manager regardless of his results and is insistent that they need a top-class manager to avoid getting ‘beat up’ against the Premier League’s top three.
This is in view of the fact that the Red Devils have won a major match away over Leeds on Sunday to move four points clear of the marauders closing in on the fourth position as many among the chasing pack have multiple games in hand to close the gap.
Rangnick is yet unbeaten in his last seven league matches despite sacrificing several leads recently and has creditably only lost once since taking over from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the helm as manager – but former United stalwart Neville still feels the German tactician is best suited to an advisory role in a sport directorial capacity and says United need to appoint a ‘great’ manager to compete with the likes of Liverpool, City and Chelsea.
Speaking after United’s 4-2 win at Elland Road, he said on The Gary Neville Podcast:
‘I don’t think he gets the job at the end of the season come what may now.
‘I think there was maybe a feeling at the beginning that if he went like that [upturn in form] then that could happen, but that isn’t going to happen. Manchester United will have a new manager next season.’
When asked if Rangnick will have a say in the appointment of his replacement, Neville opined: ‘I think he will because what he’s got is a real good view of the personalities, characters, performance levels and training levels of the current group of players.
‘So he’s in a strong position to be able to advise. He’s probably in the strongest position to be able to advise because he’s having day-to-day contact with them.
‘He’s seeing them, how they cope with disappointment, how they cope with atmospheres, how they cope with big games, how they cope with training, how they cope with three games in a week.
‘Can they meet the demands of the club? Have they got the quality? He’s seeing that and I think he’ll judge that.
‘People say he’s a sporting director and he’s a coach, but the reality of it is his position as coach is short term. His position in assisting the club and constructing their new methodology moving forward and their new structure moving forward is a longer term position for two years.
‘So I’d rather him get that bit right, I’d rather the sort of short-term suffer for the longer term perspective being right. I think he’s got good experience around building structures in football clubs and Manchester United do need that.
‘And in the summer they’ve got big appointments to make, namely the manager. The manager has got to be right next season to take on Thomas Tuchel, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, because if you don’t take on those three with a manager who can face them like-for-like, you’ll get beat up.
‘It’s been proven over the last few years that great managers in this league will bring you great things, and Manchester United need a great manager to compete with the ones that are at that level in this league at this moment in time.’