The 7 Man Utd managers put forward by pundits: Southgate, Simeone, Dyche…
You never have to wait too long to hear a pundit talking about Manchester United and plenty have given their verdict about who the next manager should be.
Despite Jim Ratcliffe giving him a three-year stay of execution, Ruben Amorim’s future at United seems shaky at best and there will be no shortage of managers who think they can be the one to change the cursed Old Trafford club.
There’s also no shortage of pundits giving their opinion on who should be next and kicking us off is Paul Scholes, who recently picked incumbent Newcastle boss Eddie Howe for the United gig.
“Eddie Howe,” Scholes said on Sky Sports’ Overlap debate show. “I’m not sure about his mate [assistant manager Jason Tindall], but definitely him.”
Scholes did not elaborate on his choice but it is not the worst shout in the world – more of that later – with Howe having done well at Bournemouth and now Newcastle.
For the St James’ Park side, he has overseen 183 matches with a win rate of 51.91% but more importantly than just numbers, Howe took over when relegation was not an unrealistic prospect and brought the club to the top end of the Premier League table.
He also won silverware with their League Cup victory last season but the question is whether he would be able to replicate that success at Old Trafford.
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And if Howe can be criticised for no experience at a top European club, that is not an accusation that can be made of Roy Keane’s suggestion.
“I’ve said it for years,” Keane said on The Overlap’s Stick to Football podcast.
“I’d like to see Atletico Madrid, [Diego] Simeone. I’d like to see him go in there.
“I think he would just create havoc, but good havoc. I think he’d rock up to that place and say, ‘This is how you do things.’
“No guarantee, but I’d just like to see his personality, even his track record.”
That track record includes a now 14-year stint at Atleti and it is not an exaggeration to say he has revolutionised the club in that time. While they were once one of Real Madrid’s biggest sources of joy, Simeone turned them into a thorn in both Madrid and Barcelona’s sides.
And while plenty of managers like Mikel Arteta and Gareth Southgate can be praised for reforming a team, Simeone crucially delivered trophies including two league titles.
The question would be whether Simeone can deliver that success elsewhere as he enjoyed enormous freedom at the Wanda Metropolitano, not to mention the biggest paycheque of any manager in the world.
Speaking of Roy Keane, former Spurs midfielder turned talkSPORT host Jamie O’Hara reckons the Irishman should be part of the coaching setup.
“I’m amazed that no one has phoned Roy Keane and said, ‘Can you come in at Man Utd and be part of what we’re doing here?’ because he is arguably Man Utd’s greatest captain,” O’Hara said.
“He is a leader. He’s unbelievable. When you watch him, he’s ferocious, you listen to him, when he walks into a dressing room, you’re going to listen.
“He’s going to lead by example. He’s not going to allow poor standards. I can’t believe Manchester United have not phoned Roy Keane.
“Maybe it’s because he can’t be the manager.
“Maybe it’s because he’s too hot-headed, I don’t know. They want someone in with more tactical nous or whatever.
“How Roy Keane isn’t in there at that football club, in the dressing room, in there every day at the training ground telling them this is the standard, this is what’s Man Utd, this is what we’ve built, this is how we do it… I cannot believe they’ve not done something like that.”
Keane’s managerial record is not quite as glittering as his playing days. While he did guide Sunderland to the Premier League, he did not do the same at his next club Ipswich and went 14 games without a win in his first full year in charge.
By the time he was sacked, Ipswich were 21st in the league in what was Keane’s last managerial role. He has since been an assistant boss to Martin O’Neill at Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and the Irish national team.
Another pundit to put his two cents in is Charlie Austin who put forward two candidates – Zinedine Zidane and, um, Sean Dyche?
Other than being follically challenged, it is hard to see too many similarities between Dyche and the three-time Champions League-winning manager Zidane but Austin believes his former coach could do a job.
“If it’s my decision, I’m going after Zinedine Zidane,” Austin said on Sky Sports News. “I’ll try to convince him to come to Manchester United. [It] shouldn’t need doing but at this moment in time, you do.
“Ultimately, there are a different set of managers that you’ve got to be looking at, because the situation Manchester United are in, I would take Zidane but is he the right man for the job and how we see them, probably not.”
“In my honest opinion, you have to look at the job Sean Dyche did at Burnley, what he did at Everton. For me, he stabilised the club, at least he’s going to put structure in there.
“Zidane is the top of the tree for me, but what the club needs now is structure because that is something they do not have. I know Manchester United fans will look at me saying, ‘he said Sean Dyche’, no, they need structure [and] that is a man who will come in and make the team a lot better than what we are all seeing.”
If Dyche is on the more extreme end of the scale, the suggestion put forward by former assistant boss Rene Meulensteen may be more realistic.
“Michael Carrick might be the obvious option if Ruben Amorim is to go,” he told BetVictor.
“Obviously Michael Carrick still knows quite a few players that were there when he was there. So he’s still got some good inside information. He obviously knows the club. He knows what’s expected from the club.
“But the key is that you need to have a guy that obviously has got a clear idea but puts some kind of a structure in place that the players buy into and that you get a spark from the players. Because they’re not bad players, there’s plenty of good players there.
“I’m sure that if they would play in a system that suits them, they really play at their best. I think you could see a fantastic Manchester United. Maybe Michael could well be the guy.
“It’s not magic. It’s common sense more than anything, that’s it and Carrick has got plenty of that.”
One name consistently linked with the United job is Gareth Southgate who was on the shortlist the last time there was a vacancy.
It was Southgate that reportedly turned it down that time, citing burnout from his time at England, but the INEOS group is said to be keen on the man who rejuvenated the national side.
One supporter of Southgate is Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink who said Southgate would “calm it down.”
“Look, I don’t like to see managers getting the sack and all that kind of stuff. But look, Gareth will be a great appointment, he will,” Hasselbaink said on Sky Sports.
“He’s good at talking to the media. He’s got a brilliant playing style, he wants to play good football and dominant football.
“He will calm it down, he will be clear, in that aspect, he would be a brilliant appointment.
“He is very assured of his way, where he wants to go, and his communication skills in communicating with the people around him and the players. He’s very clear in that, and yeah, he gives young players opportunities.
“He’s not afraid to give young players opportunities, and that’s what Man United stands for.”
Hasselbaink is not the only one to suggest Southgate with Peter Crouch backing the man who took England to two European finals.
“He’s gone from a statue to people thinking he’s not good enough for the Man United job. It’s such a fine line in football,” Crouch said.
“I think he’s someone that could build something there. You keep getting managers over that are here for the short term, but I think Gareth Southgate is someone who can build something big.”
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