Manchester United are open to waiting until the summer to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as manager and appear to be looking for a British replacement to succeed him.
The current United manager has survived a tempestuous week since the 5-0 mauling at the hands of Liverpool on Sunday.
It was a defeat Solskjaer admits will linger long in the memory, as well as the history books, and has sparked speculation about his successor.
Antonio Conte has been ruled out as a potential replacement due to the high cost and high maintenance involved in recruiting the Italian.
And sources have confirmed to i that United have decided to “buy British” when they chase their next manager – with Leicester’s Brendan Rodgers top of that list.
The Northern Irishman has fans across the United hierarchy and the prospect of United sticking with Solskjaer until the summer, by which time they hope to have been able to lure Rodgers away from Leicester, is emerging as their most likely “Plan B”.
England manager Gareth Southgate has also been mentioned, unsurprisingly given the fine form United’s contingent including Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford have shown playing for his national team.
But the looming World Cup, now a little over a year away, makes this recruitment virtually impossible with Southgate thought unlikely to abandon his current role given that his side maintain a realistic chance of winning the trophy.
Meanwhile, Solskjaer will attempt to arrest his team’s slide, and secure his job for a little while longer, at Tottenham on Saturday.
“I’ve been through some very bad moments here as a player, when I’ve been a coach and a manager as well,” said Solskjaer. “I’ve had to deal with setbacks.
“There have been two or three crises, at least, since I became the manager here. One thing I can say is, I’ll always give it a good shot and fight back.”
Solskjaer revealed he had a brief conversation with his mentor Sir Alex Ferguson at United’s training ground this week, although he did not divulge the contents of their conversation.
Instead, the United manager channeled his inner boxing coach to describe where his team failed against Liverpool.
“Of course, you have to hold hands up and that performance is not acceptable, and we have to look at why it was not acceptable,” he said.
“I use the analogy: it felt like we were a boxer being punch drunk, getting knocked down in the first four minutes or first round.
“We had a chance, we conceded a goal, we wanted to sort it out, and went a bit too open and too frantic against a good team. You see Tyson Fury when he gets knocked down a few times, it’s remarkable how calm and composed he is when he is on the floor, he counts to six, seven or eight and then he gets up and he is ready to go again.
“We got up too early and tried to sort it so minds have to be better but we’ve had to look at different things as well and you have to be up front and honest, the communication has to be direct.”
Raphael Varane is back from injury at Spurs leaving suspended Paul Pogba as Solskjaer’s only absentee.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3w0FCTZ
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