Ralf Rangnick's consultancy role has been scrapped

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The "consultancy as a sweetener" for negotiations doesn't make sense to me. You know it'll get reported everywhere and questions will be asked about it (what would he consult about etc).

And if the guy leaves without fulfilling the consultancy role (which is the case now) it'll only look more stupid on Utd's part.

It was reported at the time that the consultancy role was requested by Ralf as per the tweet above.
 
Why is this on the club rather than Rangnick himself? The news in the OP says that both parties agreed to forego the consultancy clause. From Ralf's perspective, it could have been easy money to do nothing for 6 days per month. He also had role written in black and white into his contract. United wouldn't be able to cancel it without his express consent.

I think Rangnick simply wanted to focus on Austria. From the United's point of view, we're not losing anything important. We never wanted a consultancy in the first place. So it makes sense to agree to end it if that's what Ralf requested.
 
I realize that we're a level above Salzburg, but everyone has to make a step up at some point. If you were looking for a DOF (Edit: or someone to consult in that area) that's ready to step up to the top level, there are few with better track records than Rangnick. Surely he's had more success than our current DOF, it's not like we went out and hired someone obviously better and more qualified.

Maybe ETH wants to do it all himself, like SAF used to.

If Rangnick could recognize Mane's quality at Metz surely he could have seen it at Salzburg or Southampton.

But where does it stop. Do we get the Southampton guy because he signed Mane or do we get the Liverpool guy? Let us also remember we wanted Mane the season before.

I get what you mean and I’m all for people making a step up. However your ideas have to level up as well. All I’m saying is I don’t think they did. We got a bit carried away because he wanted Kamara, Diaz, the Juve striker etc. But I don’t think that’s the direction we want to be going in.
 
The "consultancy as a sweetener" for negotiations doesn't make sense to me. You know it'll get reported everywhere and questions will be asked about it (what would he consult about etc).

And if the guy leaves without fulfilling the consultancy role (which is the case now) it'll only look more stupid on Utd's part.
This is what Murtough said in November. Rangnick's advisory role was only ever an afterthought (Link). The focus was on him being a replacement for Ole.

Murtough, who spent time studying Rangnick at Leipzig in 2019, said: “Ralf is one of the most respected coaches and innovators in European football.

“He was our No 1 candidate for interim manager, reflecting the invaluable leadership and technical skills he will bring from almost four decades of experience in management and coaching. Everyone at the club is looking forward to working with him during the season ahead, and then for a further two years in his advisory role.”
 
So to briefly sum up, we hired a guy with no pedigree at this level, coming off one year of management in ten, to go with another two years of consultancy, suggested by Ralf, on terms that no one had thought to discuss, much less pin down beforehand,. He was brought in to get top 4, which he didn't, to implement a pressing style, which he managed for half an hour, and to assess the squad for the next guy, except the next guy doesn't seem arsed, considering Ralf has spent most of the last couple of months in press conferences - when he wasn't negotiating a move to another team - talking about how he hadn't spoken to him yet but hoped to soon, if ETH wanted to hear his views.
Ejgp0P2WsAUk-1W.jpg

:lol: :lol:

You got to laugh really, the only hope is that they stumbled into something special with Ten Hag and he can work around this mess.
 
The consultancy thing was not why he was hired. We didn't set out to hire a consultant. It appears to have been tacked on during negotiations as a sweetener to get him in as interim.

This old tweet was posted earlier:



How crazy is that though? He’s basically been retired from management for years and is widely regarded as a great DoF, why the hell hire him in the first place if you’re not going to use his speciality?

Says it all if the club hired him with no plan to go beyond this season, they’re fecking clueless.
 
It was reported at the time that the consultancy role was requested by Ralf as per the tweet above.
Right. What I mean is that since it was officially included in the contracts, I assume Utd were going to indeed use him for a 2 year consultancy role. Why otherwise agree to it? You know the media will report on it and it'll make you look stupid if you cut Ralf loose after 6 months anyway. It's bad PR for Utd.

So I assume it was serious from the beginning but likely the Austria job made both parties agree that it was for the best to end it.
 
The "consultancy as a sweetener" for negotiations doesn't make sense to me. You know it'll get reported everywhere and questions will be asked about it (what would he consult about etc).

And if the guy leaves without fulfilling the consultancy role (which is the case now) it'll only look more stupid on Utd's part.

So what you're saying is...United handled the managerial situation last year absolutely appallingly incompetently? Is this news to anyone? It's not really relevant to how Ten Hag gets on, it hopefully reflects Woodward's incompetence and not Arnold's but we're not likely to ever know, and even if Arnold did like the idea it would have been an opportunity to learn how to be less of a feckwit. Since we know absolutely nothing about Arnold or who made all the shocking decisions around the sacking of Solskjaer and the 1001 interim managers, it's really not worth worrying about.

Just have to hope those numpties have either left the club or have have learned something. There's quite a good chance of it in fairness given Judge, Woody and a bunch of others have left, and we know nothing really about Murtough's or Arnold's characters or abilities.
 
It only looks 'bad' for United because a portion of the fanbase latched on to the idea of his consultancy being mega-important.

If you take a step back and consider whether that was ever important to the club (which evidently is wasn't) this move doesn't really matter. It was only ever a bullshit job created out of thin air to keep an interim manager feeling important.
 
It only looks 'bad' for United because a portion of the fanbase latched on to the idea of his consultancy being mega-important.

If you take a step back and consider whether that was ever important to the club (which evidently is wasn't) this move doesn't really matter. It was only ever a bullshit job created out of thin air to keep an interim manager feeling important.
Exactly.
 
I find it slightly worrying that Ralf said that he was looking forward to contributing as a consultant at the end of the season but now it’s completely off a week or so later? What’s happened in that time to cause such a 180?

As I’ve said previously, I was under the impression that Ralf was working more with Murtough and the modernisation of the club structure (scouting, recruitment, putting in a sound, autonomous way of working at the club regardless of who the manager is etc) than ETH and the first team. I’m not sure if the media have invented this notion that Ralf and ETH were going to be a partnership as I’m sure Ralf has also shrugged off the question about working with ETH and he’s said that he’s not been involved in the hiring process.

And did I read that Ralf a Woodward move? Why was Woodward making such major decisions when he was leaving in two months? Don’t you usually get phased out the decision making process once you’ve announced you’re leaving? Like in most jobs? Because you know sabotage and all that.
 
It only looks 'bad' for United because a portion of the fanbase latched on to the idea of his consultancy being mega-important.

If you take a step back and consider whether that was ever important to the club (which evidently is wasn't) this move doesn't really matter. It was only ever a bullshit job created out of thin air to keep an interim manager feeling important.
That still makes the club look bad though. Why would we hire him as an interim in the first place, if he's barely coached in the last decade and his reputation is around building clubs behind the scenes?
 
It only looks 'bad' for United because a portion of the fanbase latched on to the idea of his consultancy being mega-important.

If you take a step back and consider whether that was ever important to the club (which evidently is wasn't) this move doesn't really matter. It was only ever a bullshit job created out of thin air to keep an interim manager feeling important.
But of course that makes Utd look bad now. A club agreeing to a bullshit job just as a sweetener for negotiations. Knowing damn well fans would expect a consultancy role and the media would report on it. Because it's included in the contract.

You can't expect to agree to a consultancy role, bin Ralf in 6 months, and have no fans asking "huh, what about that consultancy role you agreed to"?
 
That still makes the club look bad though. Why would we hire him as an interim in the first place, if he's barely coached in the last decade and his reputation is around building clubs behind the scenes?
He came in to steady the ship. That's all.

The problem was that the players onboard all downed tools and actively tried to rock the ship from side-to-side.

Any interim manager would have had problems, imo. The only way we could have avoided it was if we'd hired a permanent manager. But of all the managers available, only Conte was big enough.

So it comes down to EL+EtH long term, or CL+Conte for 18 months before everything implodes.

The club is hoping for long term gain instead of short term pain. I'm happy enough with that decision.
 
It only looks 'bad' for United because a portion of the fanbase latched on to the idea of his consultancy being mega-important.

If you take a step back and consider whether that was ever important to the club (which evidently is wasn't) this move doesn't really matter. It was only ever a bullshit job created out of thin air to keep an interim manager feeling important.

Yeah, but the issue is that his appointment as short-term manager only made sense if we were going to use him in a different - more fitting - role afterwards.

Without that, it means we've absolutely wasted the second half of the season - and lost a potential CL place - by giving the manager's job short term for someone who was never going to be the best man for such a job.
 
Yeah, but the issue is that his appointment as short-term manager only made sense if we were going to use him in a different - more fitting - role afterwards.

Without that, it means we've absolutely wasted the second half of the season - and lost a potential CL place - by giving the manager's job short term for someone who was never going to be the best man for such a job.
It made sense because we had no other options besides Conte - who seems to be persona non grata among the club's hierarchy.

We couldn't spend two thirds of a season without a manager. So somebody had to be brought in. If the price for that appointment was a meaningless consultancy for 6 days per month afterwards, so be it.

It seems, now, cooler heads have prevailed. Rangnick wants to focus on Austria and United have admitted they never really cared in the first place.
 
Why is this on the club's fault rather than Rangnick himself? The news in the OP says that both parties agreed to forego the consultancy clause. From Ralf's perspective, it could have been easy money to do nothing for 6 days per month. He also had role written in black and white in his contract. United wouldn't be able to cancel it without his express consent.

I think Rangnick simply wanted to focus on Austria. From the United's point of view, we're not losing anything important. We never wanted a consultancy in the first place. So it makes sense to agree to end it if that's what Ralf requested.

I appreciate that Ralf didn't want to accept "easy money" by doing nothing for 6 days a week. We already have enough players who collect a paycheck without doing anything, so it's nice that Ralf has his priorities in order to resign and not collect a paycheck when he couldn't be focused 100% on the job @ hand.

Pogba 89mm
Mkhitaryan 30mm
Bailly 30mm
Matic 40mm
Lukaku 75mm
Lindelof 31mm
Fred 47mm
Dalot 19mm
Maguire 80mm
AWB 50mm
James 15mm
VdB 36mm
Diallo 37mm
Telles 15 mm
Sancho 73mm
Varane 34mm.


Could Ralf have been an asset to help United fix their terrible record in the transfer market? IDK--- but I'd rather him have input than what United did for years where Woodward had input. This is what gets me with the owners. They have spent recklessly in the market and yet they are too dumb/stubborn/ignorant (I don't know the correct word,) to fundamentally make a change in how United approach transfers. Take a look @ the success of Liverpool's transfers since Klopp arrived and then take a look @ how United has spent their money. United's transfer record is embarrassing and wasteful.

If I am the owners-- I'm asking myself questions-- why are we so poor in the transfer market, and what can we do to improve it? You save a lot more money by hiring the best people possible to make the decisions, so you don't waste as much money in the transfer market. It is literally money well spent when you avoid the likes of spending 47mm on Fred whom the manager didn't even want. Spending a few million quid a year to hire the best people to be more successful in the transfer market pays for itself. You can't hit every transfer, but United overspent tremendously over the years on many bad transfers. Why would the owners continue to stick with the status quo even though it was costing them more money? That's what I don't get about the Glazers. Everyone calls blood suckers--- but they spent money-- but they spent money terribly-- and yet they never looked in the mirror and asked-- how can we fix the situation? I mean they left Woodward in charge for so long-- that either the Glazers are loyal to a fault, or they clearly are out of their depth in owning a professional sports team. Or both.

Lets just hope ETH has a better eye for talent-- bc he needs at a minimum 6 or 7 good transfers over the next 2-3 years to even get United close to competing for titles again. I'm under the impression that Ralf was like-- F this-- I don't want to have to work for these idiots (the Glazers,) and that's why he is happy to leave United.
 
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I don’t think there was ever really a job for him after the interim job. It was to give the illusion of control, to try and keep the players honest. Which obviously didn’t work. Also gives him better financial compensation for leaving his job at Lokimotiv Moscow.

The big question is, if there was no intention to listen to Ralf, why hire him? The evidence was there for a while, when he said he didn’t know exactly what the consultancy would entail. You bring Rangnick to your club for his skills as a director, not as a manger. Surely if you were looking at purely a manager, there were better candidates for an interim gig. The selling point for Rangnick was that he would move upstairs this summer.

Another poorly thought out appointment. My optimism that things are changing diminishes on a daily basis.
 
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I appreciate that Ralf didn't want to accept "easy money" by doing nothing for 6 days a week. We already have enough players who collect a paycheck without doing anything, so it's nice that Ralf has his priorities in order to resign and not collect a paycheck when he couldn't be focused 100% on the job @ hand.

Pogba 89mm
Mkhitaryan 30mm
Bailly 30mm
Matic 40mm
Lukaku 75mm
Lindelof 31mm
Fred 47mm
Dalot 19mm
Maguire 80mm
AWB 50mm
James 15mm
VdB 36mm
Diallo 37mm
Telles 15 mm
Sancho 73mm
Varane 34mm.


Could Ralf have been an asset to help United fix their terrible record in the transfer market? IDK--- but I'd rather him have input than what United did for years where Woodward had input. This is what gets me with the owners. They have spent recklessly in the market and yet they are too dumb/stubborn/ignorant (I don't know the correct word,) to fundamentally make a change in how United approach transfers. Take a look @ the success of Liverpool's transfers since Klopp arrived and then take a look @ how United has spent their money. United's transfer record is embarrassing and wasteful.

If I am the owners-- I'm asking myself questions-- why are we so poor in the transfer market, and what can we do to improve it? You save a lot more money by hiring the best people possible to make the decisions, so you don't waste as much money in the transfer market. It is literally money well spent when you avoid the likes of spending 47mm on Fred whom the manager didn't even want. Spending a few million quid a year to hire the best people to be more successful in the transfer market pays for itself. You can't hit every transfer, but United overspent tremendously over the years on many bad transfers. Why would the owners continue to stick with the status quo even though it was costing them more money? That's what I don't get about the Glazers. Everyone calls blood suckers--- but they spent money-- but they spent money terribly-- and yet they never looked in the mirror and asked-- how can we fix the situation? I mean they left Woodward in charge for so long-- that either the Glazers are loyal to a fault, or they clearly are out of their depth in owning a professional sports team. Or both.

Lets just hope ETH has a better eye for talent-- bc he needs at a minimum 6 or 7 good transfers over the next 2-3 years to even get United close to competing for titles again. I'm under the impression that Ralf was like-- F this-- I don't want to have to work for these idiots (the Glazers,) and that's why he is happy to leave United.
I do. The answer is 'no'. He wasn't going to be consulting as a scout. His role was to consult on the club structure behind the scenes.

Rangnick is a Management Consultant with speciality in European football clubs. The player side of it was always going to be handled by our new scouting team.

You can't compare Klopp's role to the one Rangnick was going to take. They exist in two different worlds.
 
But of course that makes Utd look bad now. A club agreeing to a bullshit job just as a sweetener for negotiations. Knowing damn well fans would expect a consultancy role and the media would report on it. Because it's included in the contract.

You can't expect to agree to a consultancy role, bin Ralf in 6 months, and have no fans asking "huh, what about that consultancy role you agreed to"?
Exactly... and if the club always intended to bin off Ralf, then it makes them look even worse. As why appoint him in the first place?!

We can't be that stupid though surely - If the consultancy was just bullshit so he'd agree to come, why wouldn't we just appoint a more suitable/qualified interim? Or even just stick with Carrick.

Something must have happened over this last week or so.
 
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It only looks 'bad' for United because a portion of the fanbase latched on to the idea of his consultancy being mega-important.

If you take a step back and consider whether that was ever important to the club (which evidently is wasn't) this move doesn't really matter. It was only ever a bullshit job created out of thin air to keep an interim manager feeling important.
Bingo. You've summed it up perfectly, its only a disaster of a decision to those who thought Rangnick had a ground breaking role to play in his consultancy.

His quotes and press conferences were self serving and was obvious to anyone not blinded by it that he was talking as an outsider.
 
I appreciate that Ralf didn't want to accept "easy money" by doing nothing for 6 days a week. We already have enough players who collect a paycheck without doing anything, so it's nice that Ralf has his priorities in order to resign and not collect a paycheck when he couldn't be focused 100% on the job @ hand.

Pogba 89mm
Mkhitaryan 30mm
Bailly 30mm
Matic 40mm
Lukaku 75mm
Lindelof 31mm
Fred 47mm
Dalot 19mm
Maguire 80mm
AWB 50mm
James 15mm
VdB 36mm
Diallo 37mm
Telles 15 mm
Sancho 73mm
Varane 34mm.


Could Ralf have been an asset to help United fix their terrible record in the transfer market? IDK--- but I'd rather him have input than what United did for years where Woodward had input. This is what gets me with the owners. They have spent recklessly in the market and yet they are too dumb/stubborn/ignorant (I don't know the correct word,) to fundamentally make a change in how United approach transfers. Take a look @ the success of Liverpool's transfers since Klopp arrived and then take a look @ how United has spent their money. United's transfer record is embarrassing and wasteful.

If I am the owners-- I'm asking myself questions-- why are we so poor in the transfer market, and what can we do to improve it? You save a lot more money by hiring the best people possible to make the decisions, so you don't waste as much money in the transfer market. It is literally money well spent when you avoid the likes of spending 47mm on Fred whom the manager didn't even want. Spending a few million quid a year to hire the best people to be more successful in the transfer market pays for itself. You can't hit every transfer, but United overspent tremendously over the years on many bad transfers. Why would the owners continue to stick with the status quo even though it was costing them more money? That's what I don't get about the Glazers. Everyone calls blood suckers--- but they spent money-- but they spent money terribly-- and yet they never looked in the mirror and asked-- how can we fix the situation? I mean they left Woodward in charge for so long-- that either the Glazers are loyal to a fault, or they clearly are out of their depth in owning a professional sports team. Or both.

Lets just hope ETH has a better eye for talent-- bc he needs at a minimum 6 or 7 good transfers over the next 2-3 years to even get United close to competing for titles again. I'm under the impression that Ralf was like-- F this-- I don't want to have to work for these idiots (the Glazers,) and that's why he is happy to leave United.

Did Liverpool hire a Rangnick type to changed their transfer strategy from Aspas and Southampton. To Mane, VVD (Southampton) and Salah (3 year old failed target).
 
Job done. Big changes have been made behind the scenes and his advice must have been taken aboard by the club. There's no way this many changes would be happening without this dude exposing the sack of shit we have as a squad full of overpaid and overpriced fat sloths who can't move. He helped bring in ETH and I think his departure will mean that we get a priority sporting director (Paul Mitchell). Job done and contract completed and time to move on. ETH is in charge now and has a new team around him at the club.
 
Mitchell isn't coming qnd only a fool thinks we are hiring a sporting director when we have murtough and Fletcher.

Job done. Big changes have been made behind the scenes and his advice must have been taken aboard by the club. There's no way this many changes would be happening without this dude exposing the sack of shit we have as a squad full of overpaid and overpriced fat sloths who can't move. He helped bring in ETH and I think his departure will mean that we get a priority sporting director (Paul Mitchell). Job done and contract completed and time to move on. ETH is in charge now and has a new team around him at the club.
 
Facepalm gif. why hire him in the first place then? Aren’t we all meant to be enthusiastic about Murtough and the changes in structure? I think someone from the club should explain decisions to us, with like diagrams, charts and tables so we know they don’t just cobble it together on a Friday night out on the piss.
 
Not if you want to coach. Keep in mind that Rangnick stepped away from coaching due to health issues, an international job could be the best of both world.

Does he? If so this is news to me, more like he just wants a meaningful role before he retires, he realised he wasn't getting it with us, so took the best other option he had.

Whatever it's done now, and ETH might make the decision look meaningless, but whatever way you cut it, it's just another thing in a long line to make it look like we have no plan, and don't know what we're doing.
 
This, to me, is another example of the club having no fecking clue where it wants to go and how it wants to get there!

When he was appointed, I wrongly assumed he would develop the players into a pressing system with the aim of hiring an up and coming coach (probably from the Red Bull stable) that would transition seamlessly. I thought Ralf would use his vast network of scouts and contacts to get us some great up and coming players in the summer!

Turns out there clearly wasn’t a plan and I fear ETH will be swallowed up into the abyss too!
 
Only a few weeks ago he said he'd still be going ahead with his consultancy role as planned and now he's gone. This whole thing is just so werid and awkward.

Really what has happened since he's now gone is they hired a guy who came in, did arguably worse than Ole and blasted the entire team and organisation and blamed everyone but himself. From the outside this entire thing looks so appaling you almost wouldn't believe it.
 
It made sense because we had no other options besides Conte - who seems to be persona non grata among the club's hierarchy.

We couldn't spend two thirds of a season without a manager. So somebody had to be brought in. If the price for that appointment was a meaningless consultancy for 6 days per month afterwards, so be it.

It seems, now, cooler heads have prevailed. Rangnick wants to focus on Austria and United have admitted they never really cared in the first place.
We interviewed 5 people for the interim role, including Ernesto Valverde who is a pragmatist (which makes much more sense for an interim than someone who has barely coached in the last decade and has a very specific style of play) who has won La Liga twice in the last 5 years, so there were other options. The only ways that Rangnick was the best option was if he was going to remain as a consultant, which he now isn't, or if Murtough and Fletcher knew that they would get too giddy if Valverde improved things at all and would offer him the job permanently, which also isn't a ringing endorsement of their competence.
 
This club is a joke, and the players have won,
Didn't like him taking the Austria job.

He used us as a stepping stone, time to wake up lads
You can not be serious, he used us as a stepping stone to……Austria . More like he saw what was coming with this terribly ran club and accepted the offer. Nothing this clubs hierarchy does makes any sense whatsoever, we may as well have Mr Bean running the club.
 
His appointment and departure will go down as one of the most ludicrous decisions in recent football history. What on earth was the point if he isn’t to stay in for a while to support the new management in what he apparently specialises in. Absolutely embarrassing.
 
Thanks to Woody and Ole, United were a sinking ship when Ralf came in. We were a wrecked squad by that time but Ralf managed to scrape a EL (flowers in the mail to Brighton, of course) and it makes sense fur all involved to see him move on. No meltdown required here.
 
Situations change. Six months ago, a consultancy with Ralf might have seemed like a better idea than it does now that we have hired ten Hag and he has had a chance to suss things out for himself. On the surface, the decision not to go ahead with Ralf's consultancy is missing the requisite context so say whether it is a positive or negative development.
 
Situations change. Six months ago, a consultancy with Ralf might have seemed like a better idea than it does now that we have hired ten Hag and he has had a chance to suss things out for himself. On the surface, the decision not to go ahead with Ralf's consultancy is missing the requisite context so say whether it is a positive or negative development.
Is it possible that Ten Hag collected his data from all of the insiders, watched the matches, listened to the assistant coaches and realized Ralf is a complete fraud and wanted him nowhere near his team?

I think it’s a pretty strong possibility that Ten Hag said no thanks, and that sealed Ralf’s fate.
 
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