Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has suffered another testing week as speculation over his future has ramped up after the 4-0 thrashing at Crystal Palace.
Ten Hag has become used to the unrelenting pressure of being Manchester United boss but the last few days have certainly been difficult.
United were demolished at Selhurst Park and barely laid a glove on Crystal Palace in a humiliating 4-0 loss.
That won’t help Ten Hag’s case as he looks to prove to Ineos that he is the right man for the United job moving forward.
The rumour mill has been in overdrive since that defeat with numerous rumours surrounding Thomas Tuchel potentially replacing Ten Hag this summer.
Tuchel saw his Bayern side lose their Champions League final to Real Madrid on Wednesday night, conceding two late goals in Madrid.
The German will be leaving Bayern at the end of the season and one of his potential replacements is now keen on the Manchester United job.
Hansi Flick fancies Manchester United
Bayern’s attempts to find a replacement for Tuchel are a stark warning to United potentially moving for a new boss.
Xabi Alonso, Julian Nagelsmann and Ralf Rangnick have all been top targets at some stage, but have all rejected the job.
Bayern are scrambling for a new boss and reporter Christian Falk claims that Hansi Flick is a candidate.
Flick won the Champions League for Bayern – ironically against Tuchel’s Paris Saint-Germain side – in 2020.
A return could be in the pipeline but TalkSPORT now claim that Flick has actually ‘expressed an interest’ in the United job.
Flick is seemingly looking to land a new job having been out of work since leaving his post as Germany boss in September.
A Bayern return certainly makes sense; a steady hand who knows the club and many players in the squad and can step in as the club struggle to land a new boss.
Flick’s interest in the United job does give Ineos something to think about though, even if some cynics may think that a move to United is being pushed to try and force Bayern’s hand.
Flick career history in detail
The 59-year-old was a midfielder in his playing days and played more than 100 times for Bayern after joining from Sandhausen in 1985.
Flick finished his career with then-fifth-tier side Victoria Bammental, and that is where he started his managerial career before heading to Hoffenheim in 2000.
It’s easy to forget that Hoffenheim were stuck in the lower leagues at that time but Flick guided them out of the fifth tier and helped them on their progression to becoming a Bundesliga club.
Flick was axed in 2005 and went off to work under Giovanni Trappatoni and Lothar Matthaus on the Red Bull Salzburg coaching staff in 2006.
Germany boss Joachim Loew came calling for Flick’s services in 2006 and the pair spent eight years together in the national team setup with Flick serving as the assistant.
It looked like Flick would be an assistant for the majority of his career having taken up that role alongside Niko Kovac at Bayern in 2019.
Yet when Kovac was sacked in 2019, Flick stepped up and impressed enough to eventually earn a permanent deal.
Flick spent around 18 months as Bayern boss, winning two league titles, the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup, the DFB-Pokal and the DFL-Supercup.
Flick lost just seven of his 86 games in charge of Bayern and boasted a win rate of 81.4% during his time in charge of the Bavarian giants.
Germany landed Flick in the summer of 2021, turning to him as a replacement for Loew after crashing out of Euro 2020 at the hands of England.
Flick was supposed to improve Germany’s fortunes but an unconvincing World Cup campaign left him on the brink before his eventual exit in September 2023.
Flick – hailed as an ‘outstanding’ coach by Bernd Leno – certainly did great work at Bayern; that’s why they are considering bringing him back.
The pressure of managing the German national team seemed to unnerve Flick though and United would have to consider whether he can handle the heat at Old Trafford.
Flick deployed a high-pressing 4-2-3-1 system at Bayern, so we can see how that could play out at United, but we would make a return to Bayern the most likely outcome as things stand.