MANCHESTER UNITED MANAGER DIDN’T MEET WITH THE AUSTRIAN FA ABOUT THEIR VACANT MANAGER’S JOB.
The Austrian FA have denied reports they met Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick about their vacant manager’s job. Austrian outlet Kurier claimed that a meeting had taken place between Rangnick and the Austrian FA’s sports director Peter Schottel in Manchester on Monday. Previous Austria coach Franco Foda left his post last month following his side’s failure to reach the World Cup.
The Austrian FA have moved to rebut reports suggesting they met interim Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick in Manchester on Monday over their vacant manager’s job.
Rangnick is due to move into a two-year consultancy capacity with United at the end of the Premier League season, but now comes this new development over his future which follows speculation over the 63-year-old’s supposedly watered-down role in choosing the club’s next manager, and their overall off-pitch structure.
As carried by Austrian outlet Kurier, the Austrian federation’s sports director Peter Schottel was believed to have flown into Manchester by private jet for the talks, but Schottel’s employers tweeted a rejection of that story on Wednesday.
According to the Sun, Schottel was said to have told Rangnick he could take the Austria job while keeping his role at United, with the latter position reportedly set to see him work just six days a month.
Previous Austria boss Franco Foda resigned from his role last month after failing to qualify for the World Cup, losing to Wales in the play-offs.
Rangnick’s time at United has not gone to plan with the club going out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage and in danger of finishing their league campaign outside the top four, given their current position of seventh.
Nevertheless, Rangnick is well-thought-of in Austria, where he was director of football of the Red Bull franchise – including Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg – during their successful start-up and growth period in the 2010s.
The next few months are critical if United want to have a chance of competing for major honours next term, but there is still no concrete news on the club’s next managerial appointment, with Erik Ten Hag and Mauricio Pochettino the ongoing front-runners as the drawn-out process progresses.
