That's the thing, he's not a manager. He's a director of football. We should have given him that role.
Athletic | Manchester United: Inside Ralf Rangnick’s spell as interim manager
- Thread starter Teja
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We should still offer him that and sack Murtough.
I still really like Rangnick. He was put in an impossible situation with a piss poor squad and players with attitudes and undeserved egos but I’ve no doubt he‘s very intelligent and he’s made every problem clear to ETH.
now I hope ETH can come in and work his magic, take on Ralfs advice and bin off certain individuals.
now I hope ETH can come in and work his magic, take on Ralfs advice and bin off certain individuals.
Not sure that's a selling point for January windows tbh the way he's fallen off a cliff.
Yes true, I also feel like that. But I also think we have so much work to do we could do with our top scorer for another season. Maybe this is where ETH starts to prove his mettle, his ability to handle this type of player. Make it crystal clear that he will be a supersub or whatever the case may be. He has to take it or leave.
The whole thing about Ronaldo annoyed me. I've always believed the manager should be the one calling the shots and he shouldn't feel he has to make certain decisions because 1 player would get upset, and we see why here. I'm glad the interim manager thing is over and done with. Now hopefully we can all get behind the manager. If ETH doesn't believe anyone should be playing, then I hope the club and the fans supports him all the way, even if that person is Ronaldo. (Which is ridiculous in the first place because we shouldn't focus our rebuild on a 37 year old.)
I very much concede he is a journalist and is doing his job. Zero arguments there.
However, his job is now damaging to the club- not necessarily because his articles paint the club in a bad way-but because this constant stream of leaks he is able to get from players/staff to The Athletic (whether good or bad news) is not a healthy arrangement and increases mistrust in the club and squad.
I therefore don't care for Laurie Whitwell and would question his status as a 'fan'.
Is that not fair enough?
Both him and Fletcher are clearly SAF's men. They are going nowhere.
No club is going to block a coach from taking up the opportunity of a major promotion by becoming the manager of a fully professional football club. That would be a toxic decision.
He has recently done articles almost exclusively from the players' perspective slagging off Rangnick and his coaches. Same happened with Ole before he went too.
Some might say Whitwell does pieces from both sides so fair enough but bigger picture it's not helpful to either.
To be fair, most that we signed did in the past decade. Actually, Bruno lasted longer than most and he could find his form again.
ETH is his own man. I prefer he does not take on anyone's advice but his own staff and judgement.
I'm worried that all this drama will scare off potential signings, and those who do join will enter a toxic environment and be dragged down by the negativity and disharmony. Hopefully those leaving will go some way towards improving things, but whatever the case this needs resolving as a matter of urgency. If we start the season off with multiple players still unhappy and being disruptive the season will be a write off and Ten Hag will be fighting an uphill battle.
the main reason ralf was brought in was to analyse the club as a whole not just manage.
no doubt ralf has plenty of advice in mind It’s up to Erik wether he chooses to acknowledge it but it seems he and Ralf are in plenty of contact.
Of course, Ralf will have plenty of advice just as we all do too.
But I doubt his role will be significant going forward from now on, especially with the on-field and squad management. His role will be more like having more connections across Europe for recruiting players.
Under normal circumstances no probably not but Rangnick arrived mid-season with no coaches of his own and little prospect to hire any decent ones, he needed McKenna (according to him). I'm sure if the club had said to McKennna he was needed until the end of the season and then he was free to leave I imagine he wouldn't have had a problem with it.
It may well do, which is why there's something to be said for not airing dirty laundry in public.
He was brought in to be the first team manager first and foremost. It's been reported this week by several reliable journalists now that the club had to steer him towards concentrating solely on the first team.
I don't think it is mate, no. The fact that he's a fan is completely irrelevant. It would actually be completely unprofessional of him to not write and publish these stories because he's a fan. Again, it's not his problem and it's certainly not his job to have the club's best interest at heart. He's a journalist first. The only thing he should concern himself with is the veracity of these stories. That's it.
He doesn't work for the club. He's not part of the PR team. He's simply doing his job. It's not up to him to fix our problems.
Going to have to cut deep to remove the rot. To some extent it removes itself via ending contracts and age, but the rest will need come via realizations that certain players are just not good enough which is on Ten Hag.
I was against it due to that. We all know the club needs to be restructured and they are doing it under new management. And all these dressing room dramas happen in every single team in the world.
But by airing dirty laundry in public every week by the manager at the pressing conference just took a toll and ruined the club's reputation more than necessary in a way that potentially good employees and players will think more now to join us while being out of CL. Most players who join under these circumstances just for the money usually don't fit in at the club. There are loads of examples even at this club and others as well.
Having a lot of experience himself, RR is an idiot to do that or as some predicted that he was saving his own face which is more likely after he could not get his way with the club. It will just put more issues on top of issues that needed to be fixed in the first place.
A question has to be asked as to why the club seem to have managed to assemble the most unlikable group of cnuts in the club's recent history?
Was Fergie focusing on personality during his recruitment, because I don't remember the squad ever being this detestable? Or has the squad always had a number if assholes, but the club was winning, so it was east to ignore?
Was Fergie focusing on personality during his recruitment, because I don't remember the squad ever being this detestable? Or has the squad always had a number if assholes, but the club was winning, so it was east to ignore?
The players deserve a medal for enduring the shitshow that is Ralf.
The fecking players deserve turfing out
They can publish all these articles they want, in a few years time we will all look back and read these and laugh at getting battered by Brighton the same way Liverpool no longer worry about that Stoke game because of everything that happened after.
Got to stay postive, this shit will be a distant memory soon.
Got to stay postive, this shit will be a distant memory soon.
All the top athletics are competitive (and assholes, most likely) because they have to be to get this point. Every dressing room in the past and present has that drama. It is nothing new. It is just the season was so bad that the headlines look much more dramatic.
I think there are a couple of thoughts which have been repeated often enough they’ve become fact, they are;
A.The Red Bull clubs are some kind of panacea in football and should be the target for United. Red Bull are still third place club in Germany and have won nothing but a couple of cups. They’re essentially Southampton circa 2011.
B. That what success RB have had is entirely down to RR. It isn’t.
C. That if we show utter faith in RR, he’ll somehow fix the club.
It’s got some of the hallmarks of a cult at this point.
RR has shown absolutely nothing other than his willingness to throw everybody and everything under the bus to excuse his own shortcomings.
There was actually quite a lot about that game in the article. Not sure how much I'm allowed to paste or nah, so I'll sum up the first part:
- "A dynamic centre-forward out of possession was instrumental to Rangnick’s style, as United knew when they hired him. Ronaldo, aged 37 and with crystal clear ideas on his game, primarily comes alive with the ball at his feet or when sniffing a chance."
- Coaches discussed taking him out of the team as early as Burnley, knowing there was heavy scrutiny on Ole when he did the same, but less so when Carrick did. Ralf basically chickened out for that game, and Ronaldo scored.
- That was partly down to Ronaldo getting angry when Ralf told them he'd make wholesale changes for the Young Boys game. Ronaldo told team-mates he should either start or rest totally because sitting on the bench for three hours in the cold would be detrimental to him.
- And then there was the volcanic reaction v Brentford, which meant Ralf re-considered dropping Ronaldo v West Ham.
and then the article comes onto the City game you mentioned:
"Rangnick eventually bit the bullet in one of the biggest games of the season. He told Ronaldo of his intentions for a change in tactics days ahead of United’s trip to face Manchester City on March 6, with sessions then geared towards starting Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba as two false nines.
Ronaldo reported a hip flexor problem and flew to Portugal rather than be at the Etihad, with some team-mates suspecting he did not wish to experience the ignominy of watching such a major match from the sidelines."
And this on Cavani:
"Cavani was also absent from the 4-1 derby defeat, despite putting in one of the best training sessions team-mates could remember once Ronaldo had raised his injury worries. Cavani told club doctors his body was not right to play after Rangnick had settled on his radical Fernandes-Pogba partnership. Cavani’s removal at Burnley in February when United needed a goal seemed to be a pivotal moment in his relationship with Rangnick."
Also, mentions that Rangnick 'privately accepted' he made a mistake with the selection v City.
As they were doing so great before he arrived
Everyone in the game knew already. The only ones not in the know are the fans. So I say air it all. At least we all know now
He has been overwhelmed by the magnitude of the job. I do think that he tried his best, that he wasn't just here to grift, but he completely underestimated the league. I remember him talking about how even the bottom table clubs were tough to beat in one of his earlier pressers.
I reckon, that like everything, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Ralf hasn’t exactly brought in the best people with him and I can see why certain players didn’t listen. We had rumours of the same when Moyes came and the guilty parties would have been ‘legends’ (as league winners) so it is clearly something in football. If that is how things work then it seems a bit silly to bring in more people who can easily be dismissed.
If players are confused then I can see how displays could look absolutely shocking at times as the premier league is not exactly the place to be caught in two minds. Games are fast paced and hesitation is often punished these days.
None of the above excuses a lack of fight or effort from the players. Even confused players could surely muster a few shots on target against even the best opposition. The beatings were too bad to just be down to the manager.
Football is a tricky game, especially when you take this thoroughbreds into account. The players might be putting in bad displays but like it or not every player in the league is the best player someone has ever seen somewhere in the world. Many great players say that managers need to play them to show them they have their confidence to put things right, pulling them out is torture to them. On the flip side the manager also needs to create competition for spots so that things keep progressing. It is a difficult balance.
Given all this, I could easily believe that there are a small number of bad influences who need to be got rid of. Replace those small number of bad apples with better characters and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the worst performers now become good performers later. ETH is our first post fergie appointment who is a manager on the up and who has also done something at the highest level. Mourinho and LVG had won cups before but were perhaps faded by the time they came to United. The others had a monkey on their back when it came to titles and that definitely held them back.
None of this may be correct and it may not work out but I do think that things are usually a bit more complicated than they seem.
If players are confused then I can see how displays could look absolutely shocking at times as the premier league is not exactly the place to be caught in two minds. Games are fast paced and hesitation is often punished these days.
None of the above excuses a lack of fight or effort from the players. Even confused players could surely muster a few shots on target against even the best opposition. The beatings were too bad to just be down to the manager.
Football is a tricky game, especially when you take this thoroughbreds into account. The players might be putting in bad displays but like it or not every player in the league is the best player someone has ever seen somewhere in the world. Many great players say that managers need to play them to show them they have their confidence to put things right, pulling them out is torture to them. On the flip side the manager also needs to create competition for spots so that things keep progressing. It is a difficult balance.
Given all this, I could easily believe that there are a small number of bad influences who need to be got rid of. Replace those small number of bad apples with better characters and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the worst performers now become good performers later. ETH is our first post fergie appointment who is a manager on the up and who has also done something at the highest level. Mourinho and LVG had won cups before but were perhaps faded by the time they came to United. The others had a monkey on their back when it came to titles and that definitely held them back.
None of this may be correct and it may not work out but I do think that things are usually a bit more complicated than they seem.
Every player playing in every league that United could potentially sign had intimate knowledge of the inner workings and problems at United but the fans who follow the club very closely didn't have a clue?
For sure, that was part of it. Not only Rangnick being new to the Premier League, but so were Armas, Sharp, and Lense.
Hopefully Ten Hag bringing along McClaren will mean he can be better prepared for the Premier League than Rangnick was.
Article does mention though, that Rangnick want to bring in six support staff, and got three, and that several of his targeted staffers couldn't obtain a work permit.
- One was a former player with proven Premier League experience who could relate to the younger generation to join him as his assistant.
- Next, Ralf targeted a European coach tipped for great things but immigration rules again blocked the approach.
- United tried to convince the authorities of his credentials, compiling a 35-page dossier for the FA, but with no success.
- And then he tried for someone with a 'long list of trophies' on the CV, but he was out-of-reach because it was only 6 months, so he ended up going for Armas & Sharp.
Armas and Sharp come out of the article looking quite bad to be honest.
The part about knowing the league comes up again regarding the Burnley game:
"Systems sometimes changed late, such as for the home game to Burnley in December. In the build-up Rangnick oversaw sessions of 4-2-2-2 and 4-2-3-1, narrow teams designed to target a perceived weakness to straight aerial balls in Ben Mee. Video analysis had been conducted by Armas and Sharp, but without the consideration that clips would be found of Mee missing some headers because of the higher volume he had to repel playing for a side battling relegation. Other staff more familiar with the Premier League had different ideas, believing width was the key to unlocking Burnley’s defence. Rangnick switched that evening to a 4-4-2 and United won 3-1."
They finished second last season.
Young Fergie yes, old Fergie was wiser. He would have closed an eye only to go full red wedding mode during the summer.
Most of the scouts were brought in by SAF, Mou and LVG. Woodward has his share of fault. He meddled into areas that he shouldn't have had simply because he lacked competency in it. That incompetence was exploited by our managers. However he did bring the players the manager wanted most of the time.
Wonder how the "it's all Rangnick s fault" crowd will twist or ignore all this. Hearsay? 
The fact that Bailly got bollocking after returning late from AFCON in the middle of the season is actually a story, tells you everything you need to know about the squad and the situation in the club. Being employed by Manchester United is really a dream come true, you don't need to worry about anything, no wonder no one wants to leave. Bunch if fecking prima donnas all oer the club, and that's including the staff and other employees.
Ah yes those poor cnuts.
And what happened in the first three months of this season?