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Ruben Amorim is under increasing pressure at Manchester United with rising concerns of another botched summer at Old Trafford.
Amorim’s side have two wins from their first six Premier League games of the season, with the penalty shootout defeat at Grimsby in the Carabao a stunning nadir for team and manager. The sight of him that night, 2-0 down to League Two opposition and fiddling about with magnets on his tactics board, already has a McClaren’s Umbrella feel to it.
If Amorim is done for, the next question becomes who could take over at Manchester United? We have the big names with the latest odds here…
9=) Graham Potter
It would certainly represent a choice given the way it all went so horribly, horribly wrong at West Ham.
9=) Marco Silva
Has done quietly brilliant things at Fulham, but would Manchester United settle for quietly brilliant things? They probably should, they definitely won’t.
7=) Ole Gunnar Solksjaer
They couldn’t. Could they?
7=) Michael Carrick
Knows the club to an almost pathological degree. Has done the job before, a bit. Great football brain. But did get sacked by Middlesbrough in the summer, which feels like a setback. And Middlesbrough are now top under his successor, which is also awkward. A short-term caretaker contender for sure, but no more than that.
6) Julian Nagelsmann
Has extended his Germany contract until after Euro 2028, which would appear to rule him out, but the lure of the elite club game can be strong and Nagelsmann in the Premier League has long felt inevitable somewhere down the line. Yet surely, at the very least, it wouldn’t happen this side of the World Cup.
4=) Unai Emery
He cannot be happy with how things are going at Aston Villa; nobody wants to be reduced to playing Victor Lindelof in midfield. And of all these candidates, you would back the Spaniard to immediately improve those players at Old Trafford.
We can see this one happening.
4=) Andoni Iraola
Figures high in the betting for any big Premier League job after improbably taking Bournemouth into the higher reaches of the Premier League table. But it’s a big old leap in pressure.
3) Xavi
According to reports in Spain: ‘At Manchester United, some directors believe that Xavi could be the ideal man to rebuild the team, especially since his style of play resembles what they have been looking for since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson.’
The former Barcelona coach has been out of work since leaving Barcelona at the end of the 23/24 season, when it was reported that he was eyeing an “interesting” club in the Premier League. And the one thing you can guarantee with United is ‘interesting’.
2) Gareth Southgate
Very strongly linked with the Manchester United job last summer after somehow taking England to another European final. He would not be a popular appointment, but the good news for United fans is that it won’t happen.
Southgate has been pretty clear about feeling mighty comfortable about never taking another managerial job. That hasn’t stopped him being described as a “master of manipulation” and being tipped for the big job, mind.
1) Oliver Glasner
That FA Cup win with Crystal Palace has taken the Austrian high up all the lists, and now right to the very top of the silliest of all of them with Spurs off the table for at least the next few months. It helps that a) he plays the same system as Manchester United and b) he is simply not losing games as Palace manager.