Ralf Rangnick has opted against backing Harry Maguire as the Manchester United captain, insisting the club's players should vote next season to see who they want as their skipper.
The German will leave his interim role in the summer with Erik ten Hag coming in to take over at Old Trafford. The current Ajax boss has a host of issues to address, one being who dons the armband going forward. Maguire was made captain early in his United career but has copped criticism throughout his leadership tenure.
His performance levels have dipped this term which has not helped his cause whilst the return of Cristiano Ronaldo, a captain at his previous clubs, has led to rumours of internal rumblings. Rangnick has kept Maguire as the skipper since taking charge but admitted the turnover of players may lead to a change in captain.
He said: "Again, I understand your question, but again I think it doesn’t make sense because you don’t know which kind of players will be here, what the group will look like. I can only tell what I have done in the past when I was the head coach or the manager, because in Germany it’s called ‘match kapitan’, so the captain of the team.
"I strongly believe that the captain should be elected by the team because he’s called the team manager, and we always did that. We always had a board of four or five players, we called it the ‘spielkapitan’, elected by the players, the player with the highest amount of votes was the team captain at the end.
"That’s how I did it, I know that not a lot of head coaches do it that way." Liverpool and Arsenal have both employed such strategies, albeit with varying degrees of success. Jordan Henderson often dons the armband when he's on the pitch, but the club have a leadership group, rather than one elected man.
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Jurgen Klopp said at the start of the season: "We had 3 [captains] and the players voted for another 3. Hendo [Jordan Henderson], Milly [James Milner, Virg[il van Dijk] and then it's Trent [Alexander-Arnold], Robbo [Andy Robertson] and Alisson."
Arsenal however have also used such a strategy, but it quickly unravelled at the Emirates during Unai Emery's tenure. Back in 2019 the north Londoners voted for who they wanted to captain the side and Granit Xhaka came out on top. The Swiss midfielder joined the club in 2016 but has faced criticism throughout his spell at the Gunners.
His time as captain lasted just months before he clashed with the club's supporters in a draw against Crystal Palace. Xhaka was subsequently taken out of the first XI and stripped of the armband. The decision to vote for the captain was seen as a lack of leadership from the then manager, who some felt should've made the decision himself.
