Former interim manager questioned who is setting the direction for the club; Rangnick warns United to “try to sign and invest in young players”
Former Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick has delivered a strong assessment of the club’s continued decline, warning that poor leadership and spending are still holding the Red Devils back.
Rangnick led United for six months from December 2021 to May 2022 and did not shy away from expressing his opinions on the club. He famously declared that the club needed “open-heart surgery”. Now, over two years later, the Austrian believes United are suffering from a lack of direction.
“Since I left, they have spent £700, £800 million and the team is 15th,” Rangnick said in an interview with Sport. “They have changed coaches many times. Now there is still (Ruben) Amorim, who is a very good coach, but if in the end it doesn’t work out, another coach will come, with his new system of play or philosophy, he will bring other players.”
Rangnick questioned who is setting the direction for the club: “There has to be someone who decides what the planning is. I think we have to go back to 2013, when Sir Alex left the club. When he was still there, he was the mastermind of everything. Since then, I think the club has a leadership problem: who really makes the decisions and why do they make them?”
The criticism comes after United’s worst-ever Premier League finish – 15th place with just 11 wins in 38 matches. The club failed to lift any silverware and finished the season without qualifying for any European competition.
“If I were the owner or sporting director, I would only try to sign and invest in young players,” said Rangnick. “You sign a 30 or 28-year-old, give him a five-year contract. The total is about €110-120m, then agent fees. The whole deal is about €150m. For what?
“If you’re unlucky, in the last years of his contract, the player doesn’t even play anymore. This is like a bet. I would never allow that to happen.”
