Manchester Utd: Rangnick may beat Real Madrid to Haaland

News of the arrival of Ralf Rangnick at Manchester United as interim manager until the end of the season, as reported by The Athletic, could have repercussions beyond the current campaign. The idea of the Old Trafford board is to then offer Rangnick the post of sporting director at the club, a position he has held elsewhere with considerable success, most recently at Lokomotiv Moscow and previously at the Red Bull footballing franchise. By doing so, United may well gain the upper hand on Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Manchester City in the race to sign Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund.

The German coach and scout was responsible for signing Haaland while he was director of football for both Salzburg and Leipzig and is among the most successful movers of his type in the game, uncovering and developing talents including Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino, Naby Keita, Ibrahima Konaté, Timo Werner, Joshua Kimmich, Dayot Upamecano and Dominik Szoboszlai.

Rangnick is also a mentor to several of the game’s most in-demand coaches, such as Thomas Tuchel, Julian Nagelsmann, Ralph Hasenhüttl, and Jürgen Klopp, all of whom have adopted or modified his tactical blueprints.

While Rangnick will be expected to produce an upturn in United’s fortunes on the pitch during his interim tenure, the real coup Old Trafford has pulled off is ensuring he will then lead the club’s overall rebuild off the pitch for the two years after that.