Rio Ferdinand believes Ralf Rangnick has what it takes to become Manchester United ’s director of football, despite his poor record as interim manager.
Rangnick will step aside at the end of the season after United confirmed on Thursday that Erik ten Hag will join from Ajax this summer on a contract until June 2025 with an option of a further year. The German took over the reins in November after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked and has won just 10 of his 24 games in charge so far.
United are currently sixth in the Premier League, three points adrift of Tottenham and Arsenal, despite having played a game more than their rivals. Rangnick has struggled to implement his trademark pressing game, with the 4-0 defeat by Liverpool on Tuesday one of the low points of his stint in charge.
When he was announced as interim boss , United said he would move into a two-year consultancy role at the end of the season. The club already has John Murtough in position as football director, with Darren Fletcher as technical director and Matt Judge as transfer negotiator, but Ferdinand believes Rangnick has shown enough promise to be kept at Old Trafford in a more formal capacity.
“Where will Ralf Rangnick go? He’s got so much experience now,” he said on his YouTube channel, Vibe with Five . “There could be no better introduction to the role that Ralf Rangnick in terms of an overarching director of football – someone that can guide a club and work on the parts we’ve known about Rangnick to be top class at, which is recruitment: bringing in young players, vibrant, quick, dynamic players who can change the face of a football club – and can come in and take the place by storm.
“He’s shown he can do that before. He’s come in and been a manager and I believe I got carried away with the technical director element and that kind of bled into the management. This guy, he knows his football, he knows what players work for certain teams and for certain systems and certain philosophies and that’s his best trait.
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“Management may just not be his best trait – but that’s not to say that he wouldn’t be good at recruitment and in his strength of identifying young, hungry talent to come in and change the way it looks right now.
"I’d still entrust him with that, based on what he’s done in the past, because his recruitment, at the different levels he’s been at before, has been top drawer. I think Ralf Rangnick has a role to play at the football club still – and I genuinely believe that.”
Rangnick has five Premier League games remaining in his time as interim manager. He will hope for a response from his players against Arsenal on Saturday before fixtures against Chelsea, Brentford, Brighton and Crystal Palace.
