Report claims Man Utd won’t appoint interim until after Chelsea
Man Utd will wait until after their match against Chelsea at the weekend to appoint an interim manager, according to a report in France.
The Red Devils parted company with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Sunday after their embarrassing 4-1 defeat to Watford the day before.
United have only won three of their last 11 matches in all competitions and have now lost five of their last seven Premier League fixtures.
Solskjaer makes Premier League winners and losers farewell
Michael Carrick has been placed in caretaker charge until the club find an interim boss who can guide them until the end of the season.
L’Equipe (via Sport Witness) claim that any successful candidate for the Man Utd job will wait until after their match with Chelsea to avoid a negative start to their tenure.
The French newspaper say: ‘Tomorrow, Manchester United will play Villarreal in the Champions League, before moving to Chelsea on Sunday in the Premier League. For the interim who will arrive after Carrick, it is better to wait, no doubt, until the end of this complicated sequence.’
Solskjaer, himself brought in as caretaker in December 2018 following Jose Mourinho’s exit before getting the job on a permanent basis, admitted he paid the penalty for not being able to “take the next step” after some encouraging progress.
Last season Man Utd finished a distant second to neighbours Man City – 12 points behind in the Premier League – and lost the Europa League final to Villarreal after a marathon penalty shoot-out.
“I wanted us to take the next step to challenge for the league, to win trophies… but unfortunately I couldn’t get the results we needed and it’s time for me to step aside,” a clearly emotional Solskjaer told MUTV.
“Second place last season ahead of arguably one of the best teams in Europe (Liverpool), I think that’s a great achievement as well.
“And we were so close in Europe. Sometimes that’s the fine margin for you, one penalty.”
Our farewell interview with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ❤#MUFC
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) November 21, 2021
While Carrick is the immediate solution, Man Utd do not have a succession plan in place but former defender Gary Neville believes the club should be looking at ex-Tottenham manager and current Paris Saint-Germain boss Mauricio Pochettino.
“He’s always been a stand-out candidate and the only name I’ve mentioned as someone I thought really suited Manchester United in terms of core principles and values and how they play, how he acts and behaves,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“They haven’t planned or prepared for this, it’s deteriorated so badly and so quickly; Michael takes over now, the only option the club had was to put someone in to the end of the season, that’s been obvious for the last few weeks.
“If there was a world-class manager sat on the shelf ready to go two or three weeks ago, I think Ole would have been gone by now.”
