While Erik ten Hag’s future has been clouded further by a dismal run of one win in seven Premier League games, the Dutchman could find that his position in the Manchester United dugout becomes that little bit stronger over the coming days.
No fewer than 15 managers, by our count, have been linked with the Old Trafford post in recent weeks and months, including Graham Potter, Thiago Motta, Gareth Southgate, Simone Inzaghi and Roberto de Zerbi.
For most of a Manchester United persuasion, however, one name simply leaps off the page. He may not have a proven record of success in English football like Potter or De Zerbi – both having worked wonders at Brighton – and he might not boast an existing relationship with a number of current Red Devils stars, a la England chief Southgate.
But if neither Potter, De Zerbi nor Southgate can be described as genuine, obvious upgrades on a man who – lest we forget – ended United’s six-year trophy drought last term, you can’t really say the same of Julian Nagelsmann.
Julian Nagelsmann on Manchester United’s radar
Still only 36, Nagelsmann’s vast experience belies his youth. He’s been working as a head coach for almost a decade already. And his CV paints the picture of a manager who belongs among the elite of the tactical game, his sacking by Bayern Munich in March 2023 rendered all the more baffling when you consider how far the German giants have fallen since he was replaced in the dugout by Thomas Tuchel.
Nagelsmann, one of football’s great innovators who possesses an almost-Guardiola-esque penchant for coaxing career-best performances out of players previously viewed as ‘good’ rather than ‘great’, also had the fourth-best win rate (71 per cent) in Bayern’s storied history.
And with Nagelsmann’s agent confirming that talks are underway to take the former Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig boss back to the Allianz Arena when Tuchel departs this summer, the club’s new bosses appear to have accepted that their predecessors (including Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidzic) made a mistake letting the boyhood Bayern fan go.
“(Nagelsmann’s future) will be decided soon. In the next five, six, seven days,” Volker Struth tells Sky Sports before insisting that Bayern are not the only club in discussions.
“It would be utter nonsense to say that we are not talking to interested parties, without wanting to say who they are. All I can say is that it is not only Bayern Munich.
“It would be a parody saying that we are not in talks. Of course we are holding talks.”
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Nagelsmann is currently under contract with the German national team, but is scheduled to depart after this summer’s European Championships on home soil.
Simone Inzaghi, a Serie A champion-in-waiting with Inter Milan, has also distanced himself from the Man United post in recent days, while both Bologna and Brighton have expressed their desire to retain the hotly-tipped Motta and De Zerbi.
Perhaps this is why, per The Athletic, Ineos are planning with Ten Hag – rather than without him – ahead of next season. Genuine top-level replacements appear to be few and far between.
