We all know Mourinho is a dead man walking. Figured I'd ask you guys to consolidate all your recommendations for managers to watch for as his replacement in this thread. Who are the intriguing options out there? Pochettino is the one who immediately comes to mind for me, but I'm sure there are others. Not as sold on Zidane as many other people are, he just seemed insanely lucky in so many opportune moments.
Zidane still hasn't proven shit in my eyes but I wouldn't be against him coming here. He's a home run from a marketing standpoint and he is an idol to a lot of young players which is a draw. But most importantly, he would let the team play instead of defending for 90 minutes. After Lvg and Jose that's all I want.
I think Zindane is relevant to this current. Setting his technical and tactical aspects, you know players of a certain age instantly respect him, just for the name. That's a bonus, all in itself.
ZZ would be excellent for the reasons Mizzou said. Also I don't think he would necessarily want to have charge of transfers so he would be a natural companion to a transition to more of a DoF type model which we badly need. As long as we're willing to spend, he'd be fantastic for attracting players and he's shown he can get the maximum from talented groups. There's still uncertainty because he only really did it with one core of players, but no candidate is perfect. Choice 1A for me. Poch would be 1B in my eyes. Hasn't won big things yet, but has more than proven himself at every stop and giving him the next level of resources to play with is an obvious opportunity. I do wonder how he'd deal in forging relationships with star players (at Spurs he has stars but only ones he has brought along from the youth - it's a bit different) but in terms of working with our younger players and updating us to a more modern style there's no better choice. I think ZZ is the safer option but Poch would be the highest upside. 1B for me. I'd have Allegri 3rd and a bit below them but he would still be an excellent choice. Don't think there's another remotely realistic option (i.e. we're not getting Pep) that compares to those 3. Any of those 3 would be in my eyes by a good margin the best hire of the post-SAF era.
As it stands, the list of managers we really should be look at the moment are (in order): 1 - Allegri: His pedigree in recent years speaks for itself. Tactically, he is probably the best manager we can get (and one of the best in the business). He can win with money, but as shown he can make due with what he's got at his disposal as well. Availability is an issue though: he just signed a new contract with Juve (and Ron just signed for 2yrs, I believe). The best hope for United however is that if he can win the CL with Juve this season, he may be ready for a new challenge (and much greener pastures in the process). 2 - Pochettino: One of the best young managers in the business, bar none. Still yet to win trophies, but the way he's transformed Spurs in recent years has been very impressive. He's on a limited budget and has done extremely well to pinpoint and develop the vast youth talent available to him. That has to be a major draw for us, given how our youth setup is becoming prevalent once again. With the financial means available to him at United, it stands to reason that winning trophies would probably be a matter of time. Would bring back the football that United s known for and that the fans crave. Availability though is a major problem. Putting aside whether he'd want to come or not, Levy would make sure that Tottenham would be very well compensated for breaking his contract. In conjunction of another payoff looming possibly with Mourinho, that would make him extremely costly to bring over. 3 - Zidane: The only guy in my list currently available, Zidane is an intriguing enigma for me. Winning 3 CLs in a row (and countless other trophies) is no small feat (especially in such a short period of time). There is an argument that his job was made easier due to the team at his disposal. But still, it's not that simple when it's all said and done. Zidane has proved to be a perfect man manager of such of collection of top talent and egos. The respect he commands from players is also instantaneous and undeniable. The obvious questions are whether he can be successful with a team that is not as loaded at United. Just questions, but as previously mentioned, United is not a team devoid of talent either (especially on the offensive end) and the connection he could forge with someone like Pogba, could be enticing. All in all though, I think he's a gamble worth taking. 4 - Jardim: Lesser known than all the rest, but the undeniable sleeper for me in the up and coming managerial ranks. We've seen what he has done with Monaco, a team very limited resource wise and heavily dependent on their rich youth system. Being able to topple off mighty PSG, even for just year, is an amazing accomplishment. Also, having built the team from the ground up, we've seen Jardim take his team to the CL semis (taking some pretty big scalps along the way). Aside from his great work with developing young players, what has impressed me the most with Jardim is his adaptability. This is a guy who has been known for being a pragmatist for most of his career, however the year he won the title and made that deep CL run, with the likes of Falcao, Mbappe, Lemar and so on, they were one of the most attractive teams in all of Europe. Proof right there, that he's not a slave to his ideology and can adapt depending on the circumstances and the players at his disposal. Not available at the moment, but after Zidane, probably the easiest one to get right now. Possibly the most riskiest as well, but he's the only manager, not in a major club at this time, I would seriously consider for the job. Those 4 guys should be Woodward's shortlist if he is looking at replacing Mourinho in the near future.
I’m interested in who people see as wildcards, essentially those outside of Allegri, Poch and Zidane (who is a wildcard himself but entirely plausible from a Woodward perspective).
The one guy I would add on my list for potential consideration would be Villas-Boas. Would definitely come in at #5, after the others though because of his nomadic tendencies. Not even in the game right now after his Chinese stint, although he's probably made so much money there, I guess he can afford to take a break. And after he gets racing rallyes out of his system, he would come back rejuvenated and hungry. At 40, he's still very young as well. I really can't think of anyone else beside those 5. Nagelsmann is too young for me and Hoffenheim is nothing like United. Conte would have been an option for before his time at Chelsea. Pity that OGS never managed to take his coaching career to the next level...
Allegri, no thank you. I would put Eddie Howe in the mix, Roberto Martinez as well. Di Francesco I like him. Spalletti.
Zidane hasn't proven anything to me. He's just a more fortunate Mourihno. I would prefer having him at the club as his appointment would surely bring some gloss back to the club. The chance of landing good players will definitely be increased by 100% as his style of play allows freedom unlike The Has Been currently at the helm. Zidane will spend but spend the money wisely and overlooking youth won't be something that will happen I think and thats' based on his start of coaching Madrid's lesser team.
At least you've spared us Ronald Koeman and Frank De Boer this time, so there's progress, I suppose...
I forgot them. De Boer stint at Palace screwed him, and Koeman taking the Dutch job recently he is out of the question.
The point I was trying to illustrate is that I would easily take my 5th option over any of yours, bar Spaletti perhaps. You nix Allegri, probably the most tactically astute coach at the moment, fine... Someone like Di Francesco is intriguing, but he still needs to prove himself at the highest level: we'll see what he does and if he can another season or two like the one he just had, then sure he'd be in consideration. But not yet. How Howe and Martinez can even be in consideration now? Howe needs to take another job to see what he's really got and is nowhere near ready for a job of United's magnitude. And Martinez is a good fit at national team level: cup competitions are his forte, but surely you haven't forgotten his time at Everton? Hard pass on both, without a second thought... As a potential 5th choice, I have no problems with that selection. As long as we get Porto, Tottenham or even Zenit Villas-Boas. Not the Chelsea one, obviously. Would still take him over Koeman or De Boer any day of the week and twice on Sunday Would easily take him over this version of Mourinho too. And furthermore, I'm also referring to guys available, or who could be potentially. I would have guys like Guardiola, Klopp, your fav Ancelotti, in my list but that really would be beside the point for the purpose of the discussion at hand...
Jardim would fit perfectly structurally as well. Monaco has a similar set up in that they do not operate with a DoF.
I suspect many say attacking style of play and past ability to use youngsters. There is going to be a natural inclination from fans to go with a very, very different manager to Jose.
Went over in detail above as to why he'd be a solid candidate for us. There are really only so few options that we could go go for. And while in a way he'd be a gamble (especially coming from Ligue Un) what he did the season before last with them both domestically and in Europe absolutely spoke volume for me as to what he is capable of. And for the record, Monaco do have a DoF/Sporting Director role: Antonio Cordon used to be it and now it has gone to Chelsea's old DoF Michael Emanelo.