Manchester United
Premier League • England
Surprise Manchester United boss target labels latest talk ‘all false’
Reported Manchester United boss target Roberto Mancini has denied having a “verbal agreement” in place to return to the Premier League.
United recently installed Ralf Rangnick as their interim manager until the end of the campaign. At that point, the German is expected to move upstairs into a consultancy role for two years. Rangnick will then be involved in the selection process for a full-time successor to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Brendan Rodgers, Maurico Pochettino and Erik ten Hag are expected to be in the running. But former Man City boss Roberto Mancini emerged as a shock contender last week.
Mancini guided Italy to glory at Euro 2020, and according to the Telegraph, a return to the Premier League could be on the cards.
The paper revealed Mancini is a shock contender to take the reins at Old Trafford.
Mancini, 57, was at the helm in the blue half of Manchester when City famously snatched the league title away from United in 2012. He has since gone on to manage in Turkey, Italy and Russia.
He is currently the Italian national team boss and of course landed the European Championship title in the summer.
But asked about an agreement being in place which would see him return to England, he dismissed the rumours.
“A verbal agreement with a Premier League club? All false,” Mancini told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“My only goal is to get to the World Cup and be able to win it.”
Mancini: We still have a chance
And Mancini has a big job on trying to get the Azzurri to Qatar. Italy could only finish second to Switzerland in Group C, so will have to beat North Macedonia in the play-offs.
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If successful they will then take on either Portugal or Turkey for a place at the finals.
“In the qualifying round, things did not go very well, but we have to accept it.” added Mancni.
“We have to roll up our sleeves and start again. We still have a chance. Of course, the draw was not great but we are the European champions and we can win the first game and then play the play-off final. “
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Rangnick’s full-time possibilities
Meanwhile, Rangnick is in pole position at Old Trafford and he would not be drawn when he was asked last week about taking over in a full-time position.
Solskjaer took over in a caretaker capacity initially, but his run of successful results saw him handed the permanent reins.
Rangnick said: “I mean the people with whom I have spoken so far have been very clear that we’re talking about a six and a half month role as a manager currently.
“We have never spoken about what will happen in the summer. Right now I’m fully aware they might be looking for a new manager. If they will then speak with me about that we will see.
“Maybe if they ask my opinion and everything goes well and we develop the team I might even make the same recommendation to the board that I did at Leipzig twice when I recommended it might be a good idea to keep working with me for one year.
“But this is all hypothetical. We cannot speak about that. For me now it’s about winning the next games and this is the major focus.”
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