Manchester United have been urged to consider appointing Roberto Mancini as the club's new manager - just days after the Italy chief saw his side fail to qualify for the World Cup.
United are set to finally appoint a new boss at the end of the season when Ralf Rangnick's interim reign concludes. The German was drafted in on a temporary basis back in December after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had been axed.
Reports in recent weeks have claimed that Mauricio Pochettino and Erik ten Hag both top a four-man shortlist for the coveted vacancy. Luis Enrique and Julen Lopetegui are also under consideration for the role, although Ten Hag has seemingly nudged ahead in the race for the job after completing an interview with the club earlier in the week.
Despite talk of Ten Hag's interview emerging, the club have insisted that they have to identify a preferred candidate - which could open the door a left-field appointment. And Darren Bent has claimed that United should instead consider Italy boss Mancini for the role.
Mancini guided the Azzurri to Euro 2020 glory at England's expense last summer, but he also had to endure the humiliation of being dumped out of the World Cup play-offs by North Macedonia this week. The minnows stunned the European champions by scrapping to a 1-0 win - leaving Mancini and Italy distraught.
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But Bent is adamant that Mancini would still be the perfect fit for United. The former Tottenham striker told talkSPORT : “[Mancini] has proved he can do it in this country and I think it is vital that he has that Premier League experience. He has gone on to win a massive trophy with Italy in the Euros, so you can’t question his pedigree in terms of winning things.
“If you’re looking for a winner, I suppose the counter argument is that people will say Jose [Mourinho] was a winner and it ended quite badly. He did win trophies for United, but people would say he left the club in a worst state.”
Despite Mancini's managerial pedigree, it remains to be seen if Manchester United fans would have any appetite to see the 57-year-old in the home dugout after his title-winning exploits with Manchester City. Mancini guided United's noisy neighbours to their first-ever Premier League title back in the 2011/12 campaign.
While Bent conceded that Mancini's past is a "big deal", he argued that other managers have gone onto work around these issues before. And Bent's talkSPORT colleague Jason Cundy went one further, hailing Mancini as a "world-class" coach who would have done a better job than Solskjaer.
Cundy said: “People will get messages and they will say, ‘well he isn’t a winner, he has just lost with Italy to try and reach the World Cup’, but if you look at his managerial record in terms of club level, he has won everything. Coppa Italia with Fiorentina and Lazio, Serie A three times with Inter Milan, obviously he won the Premier League with Man City.
“Why would Manchester United not want a winner? He should be in the conversation. I understand when things do go wrong, they can turn bad quite quickly, but Mancini is a world-class manager. I think if you get him in it goes right. I believe he would have done a better job than [Ole Gunnar] Solskjaer in a quicker time.”
