Manchester United did not make move for Pep Guardiola - reports

According to a report from Sky Sports, Manchester United have been "prepared" for the announcement that Pep Guardiola will take over Manchester City in the summer "for months." If true, it would only serve to further illustrate the extent of Ed Woodward's embarrassing incompetency, and his inexplicable and continued faith in the incumbent boss Louis van Gaal.

Sure, Guardiola may not be everyone's cup of tea, and neither his Barcelona or Bayern Munich teams may have necessarily float your boat. But he's without doubt one of two domestic coaches (the other, of course, being José Mourinho) currently head and shoulders above anyone else. His record speaks for itself. Of course, there's the chance that things will go disastrously wrong for him at Manchester City, and we sincerely hope they do, but the odds are very long indeed.

There really does seem to be the terrifying possibility that Woodward won't sack van Gaal before the expiry of his contract at the end of the next season, and we may yet need to go through another year-and-a-half of dismally ineffective, and horribly boring football. Still, at least we can console ourselves with a big deadline day signing. Or not.