Future candidates for Manchester United Manager
Amid the turbulence for the fight for the BPL title (Barclays Premier League) I would like to delve into that age old musings of "Who will take over Sir Alex game show". This subject has been talked about many times in the tabloids in recent years and many candidates were touted as successors; Mclaren, O'Neil, Eriksson and at one point Lippi. Well now a new season of this game show has started and only god knows when Sir Alex will really retire, but something tells me this is the end of the long show by Sir Alex and the curtains for this show will finally come to an end, I feel in two seasons.
In that time many things can happen and now let us see who can fit the bill, how about Mourinho? Well Bobby Charlton said that he was a good manager, but he does not fit in with United's philosophy of atttacking football and youth development and this is true so far with Mourinho. He tends to build teams with defensive steel and youth development is not his strong point, interestingly Mourinho made a rather unusaul statement yesterday which has mixed signals, though he was talking about Inter Milan he seemed to subtly reply to Bobby Charlton's comments, he said " .....I like two approaches, one which brings in great players and another which reduces the average age of the team."
Hmmhhh...sounds like youth development to me, a shot at Charlton's statement? The other candidate that might suit United will be Carlos Queiroz make no mistake he is a great manager and he handles youth well and was responsible for many of United's success previously, but the problem with Queiroz is that he just seems soft, Mourinho does not have that problem, but he lacks the attacking prowess and youth development skills of Queiroz (Ferguson without a doubt has all these).
Frank Rijkaard could have been a good candidate, but he is now lined up for Chelsea he is recommended by current boss Guus Hiddink, he will join Frank Arnesen in bringing in and developing new talent, Ajax Chief scout Hans Van Der Zee will also move to Chelsea. Hiddink is slated to be an adviser at Chelsea after his stint with Russia most probably this year. So Rijkaard is out, O'Neil? Well he is slated to take the England job in the future, but he might be very tempted if United offers him the post.
He has shown that he can work with minimum resources with Leicester City, Celtic and Aston Villa and he has the qualties to build a team and also breeding new talents, but folks watch out because Mclaren might just be the guy coming back from his Dutch Odyssey, remember that Mclaren brought succes to Middlesbro and it was not his fault that England stumbled, the roots for that go much deeper. Let us not forget Brian McClair who has been working behind the scenes at United as the Youth Academy Director, he and another ex-United player Solksjaer who just joined as MU reserves coach could join forces and be groomed to take over.
Well no definite answer for this long running game show but wait a while the season is ending.
He has shown that he can work with minimum resources with Leicester City, Celtic and Aston Villa and he has the qualties to build a team and also breeding new talents, but folks watch out because Mclaren might just be the guy coming back from his Dutch Odyssey, remember that Mclaren brought succes to Middlesbro and it was not his fault that England stumbled, the roots for that go much deeper. Let us not forget Brian McClair who has been working behind the scenes at United as the Youth Academy Director, he and another ex-United player Solksjaer who just joined as MU reserves coach could join forces and be groomed to take over.
Well no definite answer for this long running game show but wait a while the season is ending.
Comments
Moyes has shown what he can do to pull off a world-class team with a shoestring budget. Surely, giving him larger budget would give him ample opportunity to mould Man Utd into a bigger force than it already is ! To me, only 4 managers really matter in the Premier League: Sir Alex, Arsene Wenger, Rafa Benitez & Moyes. Hiddink is an enigma with his "I'm Manager one moment & no, I'm only helping out the other"!
From this, list with Sir Alex out of the way, somehow Arsene & Rafa don't look like they are looking for a move. They seem to be comfortable where they are now. As for Moyes, although he might be happy now, in a short span, he might become too big for Everton. When big-money clubs like Man Utd coming knocking on his door, it's going to be very hard to ignore.
So my bet will be on Moyes, even though I for one will be sad to see him go. He's going great guns at Everton & capable of European success for the Toffees. Hopefully, he'll be able to guide them through to another Euro-level cup & put them on higher ground before he leaves. My guess is same as yours, within the next 1 or 2 seasons max. Anything longer than that & Sir Alex might just suffer a cardiac arrest during a game, he'll just be too old.
Without a doubt, Sir Alex is among the legends of British football managers, right up there with Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley & Brian Clough (yes, good ol' Brian, God bless his soul !). But how many of us remember him during his early days from Aberdeen ? On that note, whatever happened to Eric Black ?