The notion that Manchester United already want Ralf Rangnick to continue as their manager beyond the summer is absurd.
I mean, it’s not as if he has won eight games on the bounce 3-0, with United cutting a swathe through all who stand before them.
They have still been a little patchy and skittish, and a long way from what we all expect them to be.
So I don’t know why they’d close off other potential avenues that could be available in the summer by letting word get round that Rangnick could stay in charge.
Why not wait until the end of the season and stick to the plan of him steadying the ship, assessing things and then supporting the new manager as technical director — a plan that sounded quite sensible in the first place?
After all, he has been doing the job of technical director for the last few years, which is why United wanted him in the first place.
And it’s not like he’s going anywhere, it’s not like other clubs of United’s size and stature are queueing up to take him.
Rangnick has already said, ‘You only get one opportunity to go to Manchester United in your career’, so we know he’s happy to be there.
United have him in the palm of their hand and yet, once again, they seem to have this thing where they are susceptible to making emotional overreactions.
They did it when David Moyes was The Chosen One , replacing Sir Alex Ferguson, then later they went to The Special One to try to give hugs to the fans via a man who was a routine winner.
Then they turned to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the man who gave the club one of its greatest moments when he popped up in the Nou Camp, and they handed him the job full-time on the back of a small upturn in results and a good win against Paris Saint-Germain.
So there have been a lot of emotional, knee-jerk, over-reactions at Old Trafford and, if they have made their minds up already, this looks to be another one.
Because they will have put all their eggs in one basket with no monster, significant improvement in results and performances.
And that could end up meaning they miss out on Mauricio Pochettino or someone else who is saying to their agent, ‘You know what, the United job is up in the summer, can you give them a call and test the water?’
I’m also a bit sceptical because I don’t know of any A-grade players who will be saying, ‘I want to go and play for Ralf Rangnick’.
They might want to go and play for United but they aren’t going to want to play for him in the same way as players will be looking at the cults of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Pep Guardiola, Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Jurgen Klopp and saying, ‘I’ll have a bit of that’.
So Rangnick remains a big question mark, and if United are smart they will give themselves time and follow the sensible terms of his employment as they were set out in the first place.
