At the start of March, Manchester United confirmed that the search for their next permanent manager was well underway. What the club didn’t say was that current interim boss Ralf Rangnick was not going to be given the job on a full-time basis, but the overriding feeling around the corridors of the Carrington Training Centre is that the powers that be will look elsewhere when making their appointment.
It has been said, however, that the only development that could potentially guarantee the 63-year-old the job is if the Red Devils won the Champions League. It is, of course, a remote possibility with Manchester United as high as +2500 to win the competition in the latest online betting markets, but it is still unlikely. Essentially, one can say with a strong degree of certainty that the German won’t be handed the reins on a permanent basis, but why is this the case?
Granted, Rangnick hasn’t won every game since taking over but he has slowly gone about his business and impressively handed the initiative back to United as far as a top-four finish goes. This eventuality was far from assured at the time of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's sacking and in reality, Rangnick’s record reads well in the Premier League with the German averaging two points per game as of early March.
Of course, it is still some way off the eye-watering 2.6 points needed per game to win the Premier League these days as 100 points seems to be the benchmark with both Liverpool and Manchester City dramatically upping the ante in recent seasons. But having said that, one does have to keep in mind that Rangnick hasn’t had a lot of time to fully implement his ideas on a side that is quite frankly at war with itself.
Indeed, every week seems to bring with it a new tale of discontent in the Old Trafford change room with players reportedly unhappy, and looking back on it now, it does feel as if the club have focused on reputation and not harmony when signing new players over the last few seasons.
Naturally, this has left Rangnick with a lot to do in terms of picking up the pieces of a fractious change room but irrespective of that, the German has managed to steady the ship and has the Red Devils on course for Europe once more. Simply put, Rangnick has up until this point, done exactly what has been asked of him and for that, he deserves to be considered as the next permanent manager of the club.
The inescapable truth is that the 63-year-old will probably miss out given that the club did get their fingers burned after appointing their last interim manager instead of looking further afield. It may be another costly mistake if they do decide to overlook Rangnick on a technicality of not wanting to waste another three years in the pursuit of silverware by promoting from within. This type of crippling mindset is a symptom of making a string of high-profile errors in the past which, ironically, may lead Manchester United to make yet another one.
