Zidane ‘warming to’ Man Utd as ‘lure’ reels him in

Will Ford
Zinedine Zidane Real Madrid

Zinedine Zidane is reportedly ‘warming to’ the idea of replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United, with ‘the lure’ said to be reeling in the former Real Madrid boss.

Solskjaer is under huge pressure at Old Trafford following a rotten run of results, including embarrassing defeats to rivals Liverpool and Manchester City.

Potential replacements are therefore being touted, with Brendan Rodgers, Ralf Rangnick, Erik ten Hag and Zidane among those being linked with Solskjaer’s job.


READ MORE: Is Zidane the only manager for Ronaldo’s Manchester United?


Zidane appears to be the front runner (in the rumours at least) and a report on Monday revealed a plan to ‘lure’ him to the club.

It was claimed that United ‘hope’ that Zidane’s ‘close relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo and Raphael Varane could persuade him to join the club’.

And the Daily Record suggest the lure has worked, or is working, as Zidane ‘is warming to the idea of replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as Manchester United manager’.

The 49-year-old left Real Madrid in May having won three consecutive Champions League titles, two La Liga titles and two Club World Cups in his two spells with the club.

Gary Neville believes Zidane can get the best of the United “grenades”.

“There is a lot of emotion on Manchester United over the past 48 hours, and rightly so – the performances have not been right this season, nowhere near good enough for the players in that squad,” Neville told Sky Sports on Monday night.

“That is causing massive problems for the manager at this moment in time. They’ve got six grenades where the pins have been pulled out in the dressing room.

“That can work. I’ve seen Vicente del Bosque do it at Real Madrid and Zinedine Zidane, where you have a collection of great players that win games in the moment. PSG are like it at the moment under Mauricio Pochettino – they aren’t really a Pochettino team. He’s got great players and big names.

“Ole has got a bit of that now. Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Edinson Cavani, Paul Pogba, Harry Maguire. Massive characters in the dressing room.

“Maguire is probably looking at Raphael Varane thinking whether he is still the top dog, because Varane is a Champions League winner. You’ve got the dynamic of Cavani sat on the bench after begging him to stay another year, with Ronaldo, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood all playing ahead of him.

“You’ve also got Jadon Sancho, who has been chased all over Europe for the last two years and he’s now looking like he’s in and out. You have all these issues. Ole somehow has to bring that group together and find a basic, simple way of playing defensively where the players buy into it. And allow the talented players to win the game for him.”