After his final match in charge at Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson took the microphone in the centre circle to declare that managing Manchester United had been “the most fantastic experience of my life” and urging supporters to “stand by the next manager.”
Ralf Rangnick didn’t do likewise. Unsurprisingly, given that the Scot lasted 27 seasons and he has had 27 games. The interim at least bowed out on home turf with his biggest win as United manager, 3-0 against Brentford. He spent his evening facing the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand. There won’t even be a Ralf Rangnick Cupboard at Old Trafford. His legacy is threadbare. Rangnick has been a piercing critic of United’s recruitment and an ineffective manager of their team. A hugely influential figure in German football has had no impact in England.
“In the end I’m not happy with the results,” said Rangnick in a succinct appraisal of his reign. Performances, he might have added, haven’t been great either. The league position certainly isn’t. “I am not completely happy with those six months. I would have expected to qualify for Champions League, that was the goal we had.” He was brought in for a short-term task. His rescue mission has proved a failure.
There are two away games to go but it felt like the end of a temporary regime, a few eras and an error or two. It was probably or definitely goodbye to Juan Mata and Nemanja Matic, Jesse Lingard and Edinson Cavani. It would have been, also, to Paul Pogba, except there was no sign of United’s record buy: signed for £89m, sidelined now, perhaps his Old Trafford send-off came when he was jeered when substituted against Norwich. It might even be a second farewell to Cristiano Ronaldo, who has a year to go on his contract, amid questions over whether he will suit incoming manager Erik ten Hag or himself fancy the Europa League, but 24 goals this campaign have illustrated his enduring hunger.
“The way we played again tonight, why should he not be part of the squad and help the team? But this is a question you have to ask Erik and also Cristiano,” said Rangnick. In each case, he feels out of the loop. Having frequently found fault with United’s transfer policy in the past, he thinks they now need two more strikers, even if his definition of that is sufficiently elastic to include wingers.
“It’s obvious quite a few players will leave and there is a need for top-quality players,” Rangnick said. The exit beckons after valedictory outings. Cavani deigned to make a first appearance in almost seven weeks. Only two of his 372 goals have come this season but his second year in Manchester already felt needless when United suddenly re-signed Ronaldo. They have rejected sizeable sums of money for Lingard, gave him two league starts this season and he will now leave on a free transfer. A local was even denied his goodbye. Rangnick said it was because the local had a solitary day of training and because he was not permitted five substitutes but Cavani and Phil Jones came on instead. It felt unsatisfactory that the Uruguayan, with his questionable commitment to the cause, got a cameo and Lingard, on United’s books since he was seven, did not.
Matic is showing an honourable streak by going when he could stay; perhaps Jose Mourinho ought not to have signed him, certainly United should not have given him a three-year deal in 2020, when he was almost 32. He is not the only proof of their addiction to extending contracts without working out why.
He and Mata may be the ghosts of Chelsea’s past but they are scarcely the gegenpressing twins. The Serbian got booked for being slow (technically for tugging back Christian Eriksen, scarcely renowned for his speed himself) but Rangnick showed a sentimental streak in first starting and then substituting them. They are popular figures and there was a testimonial feel when each went off.
Mata was magnificent but his elegant excellence highlighted confused thinking. He has been at Old Trafford for eight and a half years, but they have rarely had a plan for him; a flagship signing became a fringe figure. As neither Ole Gunnar Solskjaer nor Rangnick found much use for him, it remains a mystery why they awarded him a new contract last summer: he did not play a minute in the Premier League before the 31st game this season or start until the 36th. He had padded out the wage bill before, belatedly, he became the only post-Ferguson signing to begin a Premier League game for each of the five managers, interim and supposedly permanent, who have followed the Scot.
Mata’s United years give him an unfortunate distinction. Even men on the margins for Ferguson tended to collect the major silverware. Not since Mike Duxbury has anyone played for United for so long without winning the league. The Spaniard nonetheless got a fond farewell on the lap of appreciation, with David de Gea’s respect for him evident. He, and not Pogba, is the record buy who could go with affection apparent.
But his United years have been a time of collective underachievement. This season has felt like the nadir. “This is not the fall of Manchester United,” Rangnick wrote in his programme notes. Ferguson rarely needed to say that.
