Could Rangnick become Man Utd's permanent manager next season?

Stefan Bienkowski

• 3 Dec 2021 12:58 GMT
• 4 min read

Ralf Rangnick gave all sorts of interesting answers at his first press conference as Manchester United’s interim manager, but perhaps the most intriguing one was on the topic of his long-term future at the club.

The German manager has joined the Old Trafford side on an initial six-month contract that will see him take control of the first team until the remainder of the season.

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After that, Rangnick will then apparently sign a new two-year deal to become a consultant at Man Utd and help run the club’s entire football operations. However, the German tactician was a little coy on whether or not he’d stay on as manager after this season.

“The people with whom I’ve spoken so far have been very clear we are talking about six-and-a-half months role as a manager, currently,” Rangnick said. “We have never spoken about what will happen in the summer.

“Right now, I’m fully aware they might be looking for a new manager. If they will then speak with me about that, we will see. Maybe, if they ask me for my opinion, and, as you say, everything goes well, we develop the team, I might even make the same recommendation to the board that I made at Leipzig twice, when I recommended to them it might be a good idea to keep working with me for one year.

“But this is all hypothetical, we cannot speak about it. For me, now, it’s about winning the next games and this is the major focus.”

So could Rangnick end up putting himself forward to become Man Utd’s permanent manager at the end of the season?

What his time in Germany suggests

As Rangnick has already alluded to, the German coach took on the role of head coach at RB Leipzig on two occasions during his eight years at the club.

The first stint lasted around a year, when the former Hoffenheim head coach stepped into the role due to the resignation of Achim Beierlorzer and took charge of the first team for the 2015/16 season.

Rangnick then did the same again in the summer of 2018, again looking after the first team for a year until the club could appoint a new head coach.

What’s worth pointing out about Rangnick’s time as a head coach at RB Leipzig is that in both occasions he stepped in when the club needed someone to fill the role and also then stepped back when it found a more appropriate long-term successor, which came in the form of Ralph Hasenhuttl and then Julian Nagelsmann.

As such, it would certainly be within Rangnick’s character to offer his services for a further season at Man Utd if the club are unable to entice a top-level manager to the club, but the German tactician has certainly never struggled to step aside if he believes another coach could do a better job.