Man United manager candidate ruled out for being ‘too weak’
Ralf Rangnick is out of the Manchester United manager race because he didn’t rant at a petulant Cristiano Ronaldo in the dressing room.
Weak after next
No outlet has leaned more into the Manchester United crisis theme than The Sun and its corresponding website. So dire are things at Old Trafford that Cristiano Ronaldo had to rescue Ralf Rangnick’s ‘bizarre-looking reign’ on Wednesday.
At this point it seems pertinent to say Manchester United are two points off the Champions League places with a game in hand on 4th, and Rangnick has won five and drawn three of his nine matches in charge. Things are not perfect, but they are absolutely not awful either.
Yet the following headline takes pride of place atop the website of the nation’s best-selling newspaper:
‘Cristiano Ronaldo’s disgraceful Man Utd strop shows he’s a hypocrite and Ralf Rangnick’s too weak for permanent job’
There was silly, naive, foolish Mediawatch thinking Rangnick had defused a potentially volatile situation incredibly effectively, preventing a relative non-story from dominating an incredibly tiresome discourse.
Questioning Ronaldo’s behaviour is perfectly reasonable, but holding this as an example that Rangnick is ‘too weak’ seems quite ludicrous. Still, the floor is Ken Lawrence’s.
‘No manager worth his salt would accept the super-strop from the superstar after he was replaced at Brentford.’
He didn’t ‘accept’ it. He dealt with it. Just because he quietly spoke to Ronaldo and explained his reasoning during the game instead of kicking a football boot at him in the dressing room afterwards, it doesn’t mean he’s ‘too weak’.
‘And surely no manager with any sense of command or even pride would also desert his touchline position to explain why he had hooked him.’
How about during the celebrations immediately after one of the players said manager brought on as part of the Ronaldo substitution scored to make it 3-0? That feels like an opportune time to point out to a petulant Portuguese man that he might have made the right call, before quickly returning to the dugout before the match restarts.
‘Rangnick’s actions were a sign of weakness.’
Alpha male Ken Lawrence would presumably have decked Ronaldo there and then.
‘Ronaldo’s contemptuous march past him, followed by the top throwing, the chuntering, the “why me’s?” should have been ignored.’
They were. Then Manchester United scored, completely justifying Rangnick’s decision, so he decided to sort the situation out during a break in the game.
‘Deal with it later. Concentrate on the players still out there. Get the job done.’
He did deal with it later. They did get the job done. And beyond telling Marcus Rashford how to celebrate, Mediawatch is not sure how or why Rangnick should be concentrating on players who are celebrating just having scored.
The rest of the article is dedicated to chastising Ronaldo, which is fair. But calling Rangnick ‘too weak’ and a man lacking ‘command’ or ‘pride’ for managing a difficult player and circumstance impeccably absolutely is not.
United front
‘Get real, Cristiano,’ continues one particular paragraph in that article.
‘Fourth, at best, is all you were really only going to get and maybe not even that this season.
‘Unless, of course, you didn’t see the big picture and believed that, single-handed, you were going to somehow transform a team and a club that has effectively been treading water for a decade.’
Ken Lawrence was unfortunately not one of the nine journalists asked to make pre-season predictions by The Sun in August; hopefully whoever broke the news to him was not ‘too weak’ and did so well after the event. But Mediawatch notes that none of that nonet thought Manchester United would finish lower than third, with one – obviously Neil Custis – saying they would win the title.
Did they not see the big picture of a team that has effectively been treading water for a decade?
Deep impact
Lawrence completes the hat-trick with this Ronaldo doozy:
‘Even at the age of 37 – his birthday is on February 5 – he still has much to offer and he has 14 goals this season to prove it.
‘But only now as an impact player, as a flat track bully, as a way to help see off the lesser lights of the Premier League.’
Four of his Premier League goals have come against ‘the lesser lights’ of Newcastle, Norwich and Burnley so fair enough. But four more helped beat West Ham, Tottenham and Arsenal, who currently occupy the three positions immediately above Manchester United.
Then you remember Ronaldo has five goals in six Champions League games, including in fixtures against Europa League holders Villarreal and a really very good Atalanta, and it becomes clear that as childish as he can be, calling him ‘an impact player’ or ‘flat-track bully’ is just a load of old balls.
Do you have to let in Lingard?
On the subject of Manchester United, the Manchester Evening News teases those January window clicks with this:
‘Jesse Lingard sale can fund late Manchester United transfer’
Righto. It seems unlikely but stranger things have happened.
After all, selling Lingard now ‘removes a couple of hurdles with regards to potentially signing a player before deadline day in just over a week’.
It is added that: ‘The potential sale of Lingard would not only leave United with one fewer first-team option available to them, but it would also give them a timely cash injection, surely two reasons in favour of a late pursuit in the transfer window.’
But as the final two paragraphs tell us, ‘United still look unlikely to sign any new players this month’ and letting Lingard go ‘is by no means a signal that United will themselves make a move’.
Jesse Lingard sale can fund late Manchester United transfer. But Jesse Lingard sale probably will not fund late Manchester United transfer if we’re being completely honest.
Tipped off
By the same vein, the Liverpool Echo give us this story:
‘Liverpool ‘tipped to sign’ five players in January transfer window’
By whom are they ‘tipped to sign’ five players, despite only signing seven for the first team in their previous six January transfer windows under Klopp? The Echo themselves say ‘it would be a shock to see any player brought in this month’ so please do go on…
It comes from bookmakers’ odds, of course. The shortest of which are the 4/1 offered on Liverpool signing Luis Diaz, which really doesn’t sound particularly nailed on.
From Liverpool being ‘tipped to sign’ five players in the headline, it is soon reduced to the perfectly clear ‘the bookmakers aren’t too sure that a deal will not happen’. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you conjure transfer news about a team unlikely to complete any transfers.
Insister sledge?
The MailOnline got a load of mileage out of Liverpool’s win over Arsenal but see if you can spot the common theme across all these headlines:
‘Paul Merson compares ‘phenomenal’ Trent Alexander-Arnold to David Beckham after his passing masterclass in Liverpool’s win at Arsenal… as he insists the right-back’s ability is ‘mind-blowing”
Which brave soul argued that Trent Alexander-Arnold has limited ability?
‘Chris Sutton insists Arsenal were ‘schooled’ by Liverpool in their Carabao Cup semi-final defeat and warns the Gunners are still ‘a mile off competing for major trophies’ in a brutal assessment’
Who told Chris Sutton that Arsenal actually deserved to beat Liverpool?
‘Arsenal must ‘eradicate’ their ill-discipline, insists Mikel Arteta after Thomas Partey was sent off in their loss to Liverpool – the 14th red card under the Spaniard – just hours after his return from AFCON’
Why did someone seemingly tell Mikel Arteta that three different players being sent off in three different competitions across their last four games is perfectly fine?
‘Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp praises ‘outstanding’ Arsenal youngster Gabriel Martinelli for Carabao Cup performance and insists ‘everyone must remember his name”
Who suggested to Jurgen Klopp that people should forget Gabriel Martinelli’s name?
Mediawatch insists that someone buys them and the entire football world a damn thesaurus.
