A good club in need of a good manager. A good manager in need of a good club.
Amidst all the talk of Jose Mourinho, Diego Simeone, Mauricio Pochettino, and even Ronald Koeman, one name has inexplicably been overlooked.
Manchester United fans have hit the panic button and it doesn’t matter how many times Louis van Gaal even more inexplicably beats the best teams with a fairly shit side, change is coming at Old Trafford. Change is being demanded.
The post Alex Ferguson era is as apocalyptic as it was feared in the days when supporters were happily living in ignorance of the inevitable doomsday. Not to sound dramatic but it was a bit like death. We all know it’s coming but we don’t want to talk about it. Why would you? What would be the use? Instead, they just enjoyed the 26 years under the Scotsman but his departure has left the club in need of a resurrection.
David Moyes had the accent. That was about it.
Ryan Giggs “knows the club”. So what?
Louis van Gaal had the experience and the authority and the same uncanny ability to work minor miracles with poor teams – poor teams he built himself in fairness with a generous transfer budget. Except his successes haven’t translated to league titles – they haven’t even come close to sniffing one.
So Mourinho is the short-term option almost guaranteeing the club a quick revival even if his tenure doesn’t look beyond three years. Simeone deserves all the plaudits in the world for his five-year stint at Atletico and Pochettino’s rise with Spurs – once thought to be permanently limp – has hardly gone unnoticed.
United missed out on Pep Guardiola, they let Liverpool swoop in for Jurgen Klopp and, for God’s sake, they’ve gotten so desperate that Alan Pardew’s name was even mentioned a few times.
What about Manuel Pellegrini?
What about a Premier League winner?
What about a 62-year-old with almost 28 years of management experience?
A man who knows the Champions League. A man who knows the English game. A man who knows Manchester and one who knows what it takes to manage the biggest clubs in the world.
What about Manuel Pellegrini? The man being turfed aside for no other reason but for the fact that he has the misfortune of being at Manchester City who care more about the face of their brand than they do about their actual brand.
What about Pellegrini? The man who, if he delivers European glory at the Etihad – however unlikely – will go down as the most successful manager in the club’s history. His trophy haul at present is bested only by Joe Mercer. His overall record is equalled by no-one who has managed Man City for at least a season in their 136-year timeline.
United fans are almost unanimous in their acceptance of odds-on favourite Jose Mourinho taking over after van Gaal now. That’s only because they’re desperate. No-one wanted him two years ago. He didn’t fit the club. No-one wants to watch a Jose Mourinho team every week, no-one wants to support one.
The sudden peace with his arrival is just sad resignation. It’s like, ‘well, it’s gotten this bad, we might as well.’
Nobody’s disputing that Mourinho will fire them back to the upper echelons of the table but everyone knows what his tenure could bring with him too. Chaos. Controversy. Dull routine. And, yes, pieces to pick up when he inevitably departs on bad terms.
He’s not the last resort. Manchester United do not have a last resort. That doesn’t happen.
And there’s Manuel Pellegrini sitting there. There he is in all his dignified serenity being screwed over by United’s city rivals. There he is with experience, with success, with a delightful approach to getting his teams playing devastating, attacking football.
There he is, unlike Mourinho, no risk, no issues. There he is if Manchester United want him.
A good club in need of a good manager. A good manager in need of a good club.
It wouldn’t just be the perfect way to stick it to the blue half of Manchester – for both parties. It would be a sensible and logical and exciting way to shoot United back to where they belong.
It’s just baffling that he hasn’t even been mentioned yet.
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