Manchester United interim boss Ralf Rangnick will be handing over to new permanent manager Erik ten Hag a supposedly “loaded” document with information on the Premier League club’s faltering “selfish” players.
Rangnick has been slated to present the incoming boss with a jaw-dropping dossier revealing shameful details on every first team Manchester United player.
After talks with Director of Football John Murtough and CEO Richard Arnold, the interim Old Trafford gaffer has been asked to hand his successor Ten Hag a brutal “no holes barred” rundown on the players the Dutchman will be taking over this summer. Rangnick, 63, on his part has has told them he would not be holding anything back as he is himself convinced he’s been let down and hung out to dry by a dressing room he’s deemed fit to label as “selfish, over-inflated, lacking quality and too powerful”.
News has leaked out that senior sources inside United’s Carrington training ground are saying Rangnick has been floored by the sheer lack of professionalism in the first-team squad, to even the extent of claiming that some players have blatantly turned a deaf ear to his specific instructions when he’d instructed them to follow a pattern of play to employ in certain games.
Rangnick has also told Murtough and Arnold many of United’s players are “not fit for purpose” and are physically unable to cope with fitter, high-energy opponents who are clearly able to run further, faster and harder. And that’s why he’s told Arnold the club needs a clear-out and an influx of hungry young players.
Rangnick also saw it fit to advise the hierarchy to abandon their habit of signing big-name players for short-term fixes. The highly-respected German tactician comes with proven credentials and has managed Schalke, Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig. To his credit, he even told staff at the club he believes former star and Sky TV pundit Gary Neville hat hit it spot on that the United team is indeed “broken”.
Rangnick joined United as interim head coach last November and had probably underestimated the dire mess the squad had been in then as he quickly insisted he himself might be the long-term managerial answer the club had been seeking. However this was clearly not to be as within less than five months Rangnick has had more than ample time to winess for himself at close quarters the horrific mess United are truly in and is now apparently more than happy to pass the reins to Ten Hag who will leave Ajax next month.
Rangnick’s unsavory assessment and harsh, factual indictment of the current United squad’s condition will make for unpalatable but vitally necessary reading for 52-year-old Ten Hag.
Rangnick allegedly believes Manchester United captain Harry Maguire has been made the convenient scapegoat for the club’s poor performances and believes the latter has been lamely passed the baton for a series of inexcusably inept defensive displays by the team although he is well aware that United’s £80million investment on Maguire is so substantial the club can’t just simply dispense with his services just because of a few tardy performances of late and write off England’s centre-back.
Rangnick has been shocked that in midfield United have neither the energy nor physicality crucially needed to press on in the modern game, as he believes it’s an area that expediently requires urgent attention with at least two hard running, high-energy recruits needed, not to mention a play-maker to seal the deal.
Similarly in attack Rangnick’s inclination is that United have equally pressing problems despite having had the benefit of Cristiano Ronaldo’s 20 goals this season. He’s apparently told Murtough that signing players like Edinson Cavani at the end of their careers – despite a failed experiment with 30 year old Shanghai Shenhua attacker Odion Ighalo in 2020 – is myopic and indicative of a short-term plaster-sticking strategy that serves no real purpose for the future.
Rangnick is now hedging his bets on Ten Hag getting more from Marcus Rashford and £72-million winger Jadon Sancho and is also cognisant that United need a main striker as Anthony Martial is currently on-loan at Seville, and most unlikely to be the long-term answer.
Rangnick will be moving vertically upstaris in a consultancy role this summer at Old Trafford when Ten Hag joins and is adamant United must address their problems immediately – or face more years in the wilderness. Indeed, his dossier to the Dutchman will make for grim reading but hopefully one that will serve to prepare the latter for what’s in store for him.