It is no longer breaking news; the “Sporting” fortunes at Manchester United have been dwindling since the 2011 -2012 premier league season, though their last Premiership title was way back in 2013.
Sir Alex Ferguson, who was the last manager to lift the Premier League Trophy for Man. United, was extremely clairvoyant as regards the impending and, depending on who you ask, inevitable end to the near unilateral dominance of the Premier League by Man. U. He intelligently Retired from coaching and got integrated into the club’s Management.
Some World class top of cream managers and maybe arguably not so top also succeeded Sir Alex and tried to bring back the lost glory.
Enter Dutchman Louis van Gaal, Jose “the Special One” Mourinho, and now the recently sacked Ole Gunnar Solskjær. They all failed in their quests and funny enough, the least glorified one, Ole Solskjaer also achieved their best result of 2nd league place finish!
All the while, the “Ghost shadow” of Sir Ferguson continues to hang over every successor and worst still, he is still very much physically present at the club as is evidenced, in every important home game, his health permitting.
Many have wondered why United continues to struggle, and some even believe it is all about the manager/coaching staff, etc., of which I have my doubts.
Very few managers, near nonexistent by the way, have ever arrived at the Premier League mid-season and have been able to produce a lightning positive effect.
In fact, by statistics, the most successful coach at this and consequentially is now building up to be one of the best coaches to ever manage in the premier league is none other than the German…… Thomas Tuchel a.k.a Mr. T .
Thomas Tuchel inherited a near mid-table placed Chelsea squad from Frank Lampard, in near free-fall and lots of negativity and did not only just manage to steer them to a season-ending Premier league Fourth position finish, synonymous with Champions League qualification, but in less than six months in charge, went on to win The Most lucrative and coveted trophy in world club football, the European Champions League!
The more talked about pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp all struggled in their debut premier league seasons and both needed huge financial investments in player acquisitions to eventually win the premier league.
The world was greeted this week with a reported impending arrival, of a supposed “German Coaching Guru” in the Person of Ralf Rangnick, former sports director of Red bull Leipzig, coach of Hannover, and Schalke 04 in the German Bundesliga, to Manchester United. To succeed Ole Solskjaer for the next six months, as interim Manager. Pending the discovery of a permanent replacement to Solskjaer as Team Manager.
Even after the inauguration of a permanent manager, he is reported to be programmed to stay on another role in the club to help rebuild Man. United to world dominance.
“The Ralf Rangnick hype” is built on the assertion that Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel amongst others, two managers who have excelled in the Premier League, are both students of his coaching philosophy, simply put, they are his disciples.
Rangnick is further credited as being the man responsible for the German football success in recent decades, by some!
Pep Guardiola and many Spanish-speaking coaches are all considered disciples of Leeds united Current manager. Marcelo “El loco” Bielsa and some have compared these two (Rangnick and Bielsa) in stating the hype to justify the “alleged” German phenomenon of a coach in Rangnick.
Bielsa today currently coaches Leeds united, a modest at best mid Table position seeking club but as a manager, is ridiculed with so many achievements and silverware, both as a team coach and as an individual. He is nicknamed “El Loco” because of his near unconventional way of talking and acting but, is a manager who has excelled in his native Argentina, South America, and In the Spanish League.
He is responsible for the promotion of Leeds Unitec to the Premier League and its survival in it.
Let’s take nothing away from the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson’s greatness, but in all fairness, when he was manager, the premier league was far from being the best and most lucrative football league in the world, and in total contrast to modern-day, Man. United was by far the richest club in the premier league.
This was the case for over 2 decades until a certain multi-Billionaire named Roman Abrahamovic and his wealth coupled with a then-rising star talented coach, José Mourinho hit the scenes and abruptly halted Man. United in its strides.
I was fortunate to have played on several occasions against Teams coached by Mr. Ralf Rangnick and had talks with him, he is a very intelligent man, soft-spoken, hardworking like most Germans, and intellectual. In fact, in the footballers’ circle, he was nicknamed the professor! A good coach in my opinion in the German Bundesliga, but is that good enough for the managers’ devouring Premier league?
Some have wondered: How can a coach be so phenomenal, if in his own country Germany, the best two top clubs, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have not employed his services?
The Rangnick Hype, though understandable, to sell the arrival of a very relatively unknown manager, to Man. United Fans and the some, if not most, of world football followers Is definitely in my modest opinion not only totally unnecessary but is most probably set out to be Counterproductive, and is it really necessary? I don’t think so.
In Life, we are only extremely disappointed, if, from the onset, we had very high expectations!! Need I say more? Let’s wish man United and its passionate fans well.
