OFFICIAL: Manchester United sever ties with Ralf Rangnick

Manchester United have announced that former interim manager Ralf Rangnick will not take up a consultancy role with the club, and will instead devote full attention to his new position as head coach of the Austrian national team. A brief statement posted on United’s website thanked Rangnick “for all his hard work”, while confirming that he will play no part in future affairs at Old Trafford.

The statement suggests the decision was made by mutual consent, but given that Rangnick was ostensibly excluded from almost every major sporting decision after being handed first-team duties in November, it seems plausible that United chiefs had already decided to sever ties with the 63-year-old. Rangnick’s appeals for signings in the January transfer window are understood to have fallen on deaf ears, and he himself admitted to have played no part in the hiring of his successor Erik ten Hag.

The news reflects poorly on United’s chiefs, whose apparent foresight in having appointed a man with a proven track-record of implementing successful sporting structures in the medium term have severed ties after a few months of scant on-field success. Having taken on responsibilities with Austria, Rangnick was unlikely to have made a major contribution at Old Trafford, but his input and advice might well have proven valuable at a club whose executives you’d hardly trust to run a village fete.