Wayne Rooney says Manchester United must appoint a ‘long-term’ manager this summer, as it emerges that the players want Mauricio Pochettino to take charge at the club.
United have whittled down their shortlist to four, with Erik Ten Hag, Luis Enrique and Julen Lopetegui on their four-man shortlist.
But Pochettino is the current frontrunner and widespread reports on Wednesday claim United’s squad are in favour of appointing the Argentine as they feel his man-management and Premier League gives him the edge over others.
And Rooney believes that, given United’s standing, they need to appoint a long-term manager to be in a position to win the league when Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp are no longer at Man City and Liverpool respectively.
‘They’re obviously going through a difficult period,” Rooney told the PA news agency.
‘In my opinion, what they need – whether it’s Rangnick or whether it’s a new manager at the end of the season – is someone to go in and have time. Have time to build a squad.
‘I think the next three years certainly is going to be very difficult to win the Premier League.
‘They need to give someone that time to build a squad and then really challenge for the big prizes, which a club like Manchester United needs to be doing.’
Rooney has put Derby within a fighting chance of surviving relegation from the Championship, despite their 21-point reduction earlier in the season.
The Rams are currently four points from safety and Rooney rejected the opportunity to speak to Everton about their vacant manager’s job last month as he chose to continue at Pride Park.
But Rooney has conceded that he would one day like to manage either the Toffees or the Red devils.
Asked if he would like to be the manager at United one day, Rooney said: ‘Of course. Of course I would. I think at the minute obviously my focus is on Derby County and us staying up.
‘But Manchester United, Everton (are) the two clubs who are very close to me, and hopefully one day in the future if I can manage one of them two clubs it would be a great achievement for me.’
