Man Utd can no longer use the same defence as Everton for flailing in their managerial search. The Red Devils should stay on the course they plotted…
Everton are making a pig’s ear of their search for a new manager. But the Toffees have an excuse – not a very good one, but an excuse all the same. Manchester United don’t. Not anymore…
At Goodison Park, there is not only a managerial vacancy but a vacuum of football knowledge and expertise, one that Kia Joorabchian is attempting to fill and milk for all it might be worth. Not only getting into bed with a super-agent but just as quickly moving him in is never a good idea, as United and Arsenal among many other clubs have found to their cost. But we can all understand why Farhad Moshiri has been tempted since there’s almost no-one else left at Goodison Park who might recognise a manager when they see one.
It was a similar situation at United for far too long. With Ed Woodward calling the Glazers’ shots, the Red Devils took mis-step after mis-step, treading on rakes at almost every turn.
And, in the absence of nous or a plan, there have been many turns. Different managers, a sh*t-throwing approach to recruitment, flitting between tactical approaches, all leading to almost annual resets and reboots.
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Belatedly and seemingly reluctantly, United took the measures deemed necessary to plan beyond the board’s whims and urges. John Murtough was appointed as the club’s first football director while Darren Fletcher took the role of technical director. In Murtough’s words, he and Fletcher are in place to “provide stability through times of transition”. A period of which United unquestionably still find themselves.
But the latest reports that United have ‘put their hunt for a new boss on hold’ having been impressed with Rangnick’s interim reign highlight just how slow change occurs at Old Trafford. The Red Devils still appear all too willing to go where the wind takes them.
Rangnick has had a largely positive influence, certainly in terms of results. Under the German, United have lost one in 10, with six wins along the way to take them back into the top four – the measure that has been most prized by the post-Ferguson hierarchy at Old Trafford.
Indeed, the report states that Champions League qualification would ‘go a long way to securing Rangnick the United job on a permanent basis for the next two years’.
The idea that finishing fourth makes Rangnick the man for the permanent job but coming fifth would not is exactly the type of thinking United need to escape. The line between fourth and fifth may be the tipping point between success and failure in the reassessed aims for this season, but it cannot be used as any benchmark in planning for a future where United might bother clubs with sights on greater achievements.
United should now be two months down the line with the original plan. One that, uncharacteristically, made sense when it was unveiled along with Rangnick’s appointment as interim boss.
The idea was for Rangnick to come in and steady the sinking ship while giving United six months to plan for a long-term appointment. That long-term appointment would see Rangnick move upstairs, or at least into a consultancy role so as not to tread too heavily on Murtough’s toes.
Alarm bells began to chime over the clarity of United’s vision during Rangnick’s first press conference when the 63-year-old floated the prospect that he could propose to stay on for another year, prolonging the interim period beyond this half-season.
The fact United have now apparently put the recruitment process on hold to wait for a few results suggests two things: firstly, despite the appointment of a technical director and a football director, they might not be entirely rudderless but remain too content to drift; and secondly, they are not as far into that recruitment process as they really should be.
Not only should United by now have identified a preferred list of candidates, but conversations should have taken place that would offer all parties some clarity over the way ahead. Whether or not United beat Middlesbrough, Burnley, Southampton, Leeds or anyone else should have no bearing on that long-term vision.
Everton plainly don’t have a plan, but United did. They really should stick to it.
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