Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has named the football icon he thinks should take over at Old Trafford after Ruben Amorim was sacked earlier this week.
Gary Neville wants Carlo Ancelotti at Man United (Image: Emilee Chinn – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Gary Neville has declared Carlo Ancelotti an excellent candidate to succeed Manchester United and is willing to wait until after the World Cup to take over as Brazil manager.
United are looking for a new manager following the sacking of Ruben Amorim and are in talks with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær with a view to appointing an interim manager until the end of the season. Manager Darren Fletcher took charge against Burnley and will be in the dugout against Brighton this weekend.
Former Real Madrid manager Ancelotti has already tasted success in the Premier League. In addition to managing Everton, the Italian icon won the division with Chelsea in 2009-10.
That experience is key to Neville’s mind and anyone taking the job permanently will need to meet four criteria to avoid the pitfalls the club has experienced since Alex Ferguson’s departure.
Neville wrote in the Overlap newsletter: “The last 12 years have been a period of significant underperformance for Manchester United managers, so there are boxes for the next candidate to tick.”
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“1. You have to be able to deal with the media and the noise that comes with this club. That’s the way it is, so get over it and deal with it. That’s why you’re being paid so much money.”
“2. We have to show that we can succeed in getting into the top four, that we can cope with Champions League football and that we can get the most out of a group of players that includes egos and superstars.”
“3. You have to understand the Premier League and the English football culture because it’s different from competing in many leagues in Europe.”
Carlo Ancelotti won the Premier League as Chelsea manager in 2010 (Image: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
“4. You have to understand the Manchester United way of doing things, which means you have to be a glass-half-full type of manager. Be positive and be ready to take risks and play with pace and excitement. Perhaps it will be a variation of the 4-4-1-1/4-2-3-1.”
“It takes pretty special abilities to tick all four of these boxes, so for me the standout candidate would be Carlo Ancelotti, even if his arrival could be delayed until late July if Brazil reach the World Cup finals.”
“No one has come closer to achieving all of the above than he has. Ironically, the club met with Carlo just before he retired in 2013, and we could have skipped this whole process and started with him from the beginning of the cycle.”
“However, by that stage he had almost agreed to join Real Madrid for his first spell in charge, so what could have been a perfect appointment never happened.”
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