Ralf Rangnick was ‘astonished’ by some of Manchester United’s transfer this summer and thought one pursuit was a joke invented by supporters.
Rangnick spent six months at Old Trafford after being appointed as the club’s caretaker manager after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sacking.
United had a poor start to the season under Solskjaer but their fortunes did not improve once Rangnick took over, with the club finishing sixth in the Premier League and crashing out of the Champions League and FA Cup.
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Towards the end of his spell in charge, Rangnick began to make his feelings known about the squad, claiming United were ‘six years behind’ Liverpool and needed ‘open-heart surgery’.
While Rangnick was supposed to remain at United in a consultancy role, both parties decided to part ways at the end of the caampaign and the 54-year-old has since taken over as manager of Austria.
Despite his responsibilities as an international boss, Rangnick has kept one eye on United this summer and has been taken aback by some of their transfer dealings.
The Old Trafford owners have spent over £200m on players like Antony, Lisandro Martinez and Casemiro, but there was a period when the club were being slammed for their approach.
According to the Manchester Evening News, United’s move for Austrian striker Marko Arnautovic left Rangnick ‘astonished’, with the manager convinced it was a ‘media invention’.
The Red Devils expressed interest in signing Arnautovic in August but quickly pulled out of talks due to a combination of Bologna’s transfer demands and the negative reaction from fans and pundits.
Rangnick’s successor Erik ten Hag worked with Arnautovic at Dutch side FC Twente and was reported to view the striker as a good signing to bolster United’s attacking options.
Ten Hag was searching for attacking reinforcements as Cristiano Ronaldo looked destined to leave.
Ronaldo wanted to secure a move away from United but saw his hopes dashed, although it remains to be seen whether he is given a key role at the club until January, when the speculation is sure to return.
While Rangnick struggled in his position as Manchester United boss, his assessment of the club may have been spot on.
In April he said: ‘You don’t even need glasses to see and analyse where the problems are. Now it’s about how do we solve them?
‘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.
‘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.
‘For sure [strong leadership is needed]. This is something that not just one single person as a manager can do. With all respect to Jurgen [Klopp] and Pep [Guardiola] I’m sure that they didn’t do all the things themselves [at Liverpool and Manchester City].
‘There were also other people involved in those two clubs, people in certain positions, no matter what area it was, in order to rebuild and build something we want to build here.
‘In all areas you have to have top people and they have to work together in a very close, reliable way.’
