Manchester United’s new interim manager would have been watching closely as his soon-to-be players did their auditions at Stamford BridgeAs Cristiano Ronaldo prepared to come on to the pitch with an hour gone at Stamford Bridge, having already performed a dutiful kind of warm-up, idling along the touchline like a venerable old don taking a stroll on the chamomile lawns, a large book of laminated diagrams was waved in front of his nose.Ronaldo, to his credit, made a decent show of having a look. Two decades into one of the great elite level careers, CR7 is not too proud for your diagrams. But there might have been a temptation to grab that folder and scour the hand written notes, to...
Manchester United enlisting one of the traiblazers of hard pressing adds spice to a meeting with his thriving protegeEd Woodward always gets his man. Or at least, Ed Woodward always gets a man. Give Manchester United’s chief executive his due. People definitely keep turning up.There is probably some kind of method in the decision to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjær with Ralf Rangnick: the leap from a managerial style based around vibes, DNA and warm feelings to Europe’s most unforgiving 63-year-old process trainer. Continue reading...
There has been a lack of identity and structure throughout the club so the right manager has to come in as soon as possibleManchester United have all the components required to challenge for trophies – they just need to step things up on and off the pitch.It cannot be forgotten that they finished second in the Premier League last season, but in the search to go one better they have moved away from what made them successful. I think there has been a lack of identity and structure throughout the club which has seeped into the squad. This season under Ole Gunnar Solskjær the players did not know whether they were a pressing team or a defensive side that counterattack....
Youngster’s goal sealed Manchester United’s Champions League victory in Villarreal and he can thrive under a top coachShortly after half-time the Villarreal fans broke into their customary rendition of Yellow Submarine, the song from which the club takes its nickname. Naturally, being English people abroad, the Manchester United fans at the north end of the ground decided to drown them out with their own version. “Number one is Georgie Best,” they sang. “Number two is Georgie Best.”How many other fanbases sing about a player who has not played for them in almost 50 years? It’s easy to ridicule United’s veneration of its past, the interminable appeals to nostalgia, the decision to appoint an episode of Premier League Years 97-98 as...
Solskjær had his shortcomings but shocking mismanagement by the Glazers is the real reason for club’s under-achievement“They’ll be fine. I’ll watch them and support them,” stuttered Ole Gunnar Solskjær, fighting back the tears in his emotional farewell interview on Sunday – and as a Manchester United fan it was hard not to feel the same sadness.Yes, the team may be eighth in the Premier League having recently been torn apart by a Watford side fighting relegation, but that should not be the only way Solskjær’s tenure is remembered. Continue reading...