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Ralf Rangnick reveals the six stars he tried to sign as Manchester United boss

The former Red Devils boss didn’t hold back while in charge.


Ralf Rangnick that he encouraged Manchester United to make a double swoop for RB Leipzig stars Cristopher Nkunku and Josko Gvardiol as well as four more stars during his time in charge of the club.

The Austrian boss took charge in November following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Old Trafford, agreeing to be in temporary charge until the end of the season before moving into a consultancy role with the club.

However, the Manchester United hierarchy and the then-boss chose instead to part ways at the end of the campaign rather than proceed with the consultancy phase, with Rangnick instead taking a job with the Austrian National team.

Many put this down to the bluntness with which he assessed the situation at the club while in charge, claiming that the job required to rebuild the club was massive and likening it to open heart surgery.

“It’s not enough to do some minor amendments – cosmetic things. In medicine you would say that this is an operation of the open heart”, he explained in April. £If this happens and everyone has realised that this has to happen and if people want to work together then it makes sense and I believe it doesn’t take two or three years to change those things. This can happen within one year.”

And, he has since revealed that he had plenty of ideas how to fix the side, having recommended no fewer than six players to the club hierarchy during his short stint there.

“We were already discussing players like Josko Gvardiol and Christopher Nkunku from RB Leipzig. Those were names that were realistic”, he told German outlet Bild.

“We also talked about Alvaro Morata, Luis Diaz, Dusan Vlahovic and, as I said, Erling Haaland when they were still on the market.

“But the club decided at that time to rebuild the team under the new coach.”

Ten Hag has got the club moving in the right direction, albeit with significant investment, but it still feels as though the new-look Manchester United side has some way to go to find the level that the supporters are used to.

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Ben Browning

Ben Browning

Football writer and analyst. Long-time writer of all things Arsenal and avid watcher of European football. Happy to discuss all things football over on Twitter.


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