So the news broke last night about Gareth Southgate being added to the shortlist for the Manchester United job. This is due to concerns that Pochettino looks increasingly likely to be staying at Spurs.
But I ask, why? We already have the man for the job in the hot seat as I wrote about earlier in the week. And we shouldn’t risk upsetting what England and Southgate have going on. He did great things with the England squad at the World Cup and we shouldn’t want to mess that up. For the first time, fans can actually be thinking positive about the national team.
But for the United job, what does Southgate offer over Solskjaer? Much more experienced? No, he has only spent 3 years managing a club, the rest of his time has been with the national team in various capacities. And club management is different from international management. Does he know the ins and outs of how Manchester United run and operate on a daily basis? He doesn’t. Does Southgate understand the ethos of Manchester United? Maybe, but not as well as Ole.
Morale is high in and around Manchester United at the moment, and why disrupt that at the end of the season if Ole keeps up the job he is doing so far. Bringing another manager in such as Southgate or Pochettino, not only could disrupt the good work Ole has done, but there is a risk of it all going the exact same way as the previous 3 managers have. If Ole has done well come to the end of the season, and it looks like he will, and you replace him, and if we end up doing worse, then you risk embarrassment.
Southgate is a good young manager, but at the moment, he doesn’t offer anything that would make me want to choose him over Solskjaer. He surprised everyone at the World Cup, but let’s not disguise the fact that the teams we beat, weren’t the greatest and we did come against better teams, we lost.
He needs to prove himself first by beating the better opponents. Especially considering the fact he hasn’t got a lot of club experience. His only spell was with Middlesborough between 2006 and 2009, in which he saw them relegated. Ole, on the other hand, has spent the best part of a decade in club coaching and management, even spending time coaching some of the youngsters now in our first team.
Ole is a club legend and is certainly the fans choice. He has brought the buzz back to Old Trafford. He has brought entertaining attacking football back to the club. And on that point, the England team in the World Cup hardly scored from open play, it was all from set-pieces. I’d be worried Southgate would bring that to United. Scoring from set-pieces is good. But you need to be able to score from open play as well.
Featured Image by Adam Birds. Displayed under Creative Commons.
