Who Is Most Likely to Take Over at Manchester United?
After a terrible start to the season, the club’s worst since 1990, Jose Mourinho has been sacked. With his tenure at the club damaging to Manchester United’s reputation and performance, his sacking doesn’t come as a surprise. But it does open up the question of who will be taking his place. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been confirmed as the interim manager at Old Trafford until the end of the season. A more permanent fixture is still being sought out. For anyone looking to place their bets and gamble on the next person for the job, these are the top picks for Mourinho’s replacement.
Zinedine Zidane
Zidane has a pretty impressive managerial CV, with three Champions League titles in three years under his belt, managing one of the biggest clubs in the world at Real Madrid. He’s been connected with United since May. There’s been regular talk of whether he’d be the right person to bring out the best in fellow Frenchmen Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial.
Zidane wouldn’t come cheap though, and with United having to shell out £18m to get rid of Mourinho. The question of what they’d be willing to pay for the right manager comes into play. We can see in this Infogol Guide that bookies currently have their odds set at 5/1 for Zidane to take over.
Mauricio Pochettino
Mauricio Pochettino is another contender, as he has spent very little compared to his Premier League rivals and yet his Tottenham team play very well. He’s many fans’ first choice for the position and is 14/1 for those betting on the outcome. Pochettino has a reputation for getting the best out of his players and he’s been credited with developing several younger players.
So he could be the perfect guy for the job of redeveloping United’s team and bringing them back up to peak performance. Real Madrid were also interested in him last summer and that could mean a heavyweight clash between the two clubs for Pochettino’s services. It’s believed it would cost any club at least £20m to release him from his five-year contract at Spurs though.
Antonio Conte
Antonio Conte has a long history of success with club football and is now without a club since Chelsea dismissed him in favour of Italian export, Maurizio Sarri. Conte would be likely to shake up the club. Some players have expressed a preference for someone other than Conte to take on the job. So it could be a contentious issue if he were to be hired.
But given Mourinho’s public criticism of the club’s recruitment strategy, it seems unlikely that United would want to hire someone who has a history of clashing with his previous bosses at a club level over transfers. Despite being one of the names cropping up in discussions of who will take over, Conte himself has expressed no intention of returning to management this season but could that be a smokescreen?
