This is not a Waterford Whispers article.
We repeat this is not a drill.
Things are looking bleak at Manchester United as the club slip away from the top four in the Premier League, and Juan Mata tells fans that the Europa league can save their season.
So perhaps it is that mood of desolation that led Paul Parker to make an outlandish suggestion about who could revive the mood at Old Trafford, and all while wearing a stylish gilet of course.
The ex-Manchester United defender feels that Tim Sherwood could be the ideal man to restore confidence at the club as a short-term replacement for Louis van Gaal, before the expected arrival of Jose Mourinho this summer.
In his column on Eurosport.co.uk. the former full-back argues Sherwood would perk things up among the players at least for a while
“Frankly, given how unhappy the players are right now, they’d be better off bringing in Tim Sherwood between now and the end of the season: someone to soft soap the players, given them a bit of a cuddle, get them feeling good about themselves once again.”
“Sadly, as we’ve seen with Tim, those sorts of managers don’t work long term.”
Parker is trying to make the point that Jose Mourinho may very well inherit an unhappy dressing room if he does end up at Old Trafford this summer, and perhaps he is right.
The former England international feels that Mourinho has no experience of coming to a club at a low ebb and turning its fortunes around.
“Mourinho’s history in the game tells you all you need to know: he’s a man who needs control, and who flounders in situations when he has lost it. And that’s what happened at Chelsea: with the squad getting away from him, he was unable to turn it round.”
“So to suggest that he could walk in to a crisis situation at United and turn it around is absurd. That’s something he’s never done in his career, and this really wouldn’t be the time to start. He’s lost a huge amount of respect in the game, and I suspect the players at United hate the idea of him taking over.”
Parker also feels Ryan Giggs is not the answer and he advises fans, and the Manchester United board, to “suck it up” as the club struggles towards the end of the season when they will get the chance to appoint someone more modern than Mourinho.
“United need a man who can build the club afresh, drawing on youth and vigour rather than turgid pragmatism. The right men are out there, but until the time is right for one of them to come in and take over, United are better off sticking with the devil they know.”
It’s one opinion, we suppose.
