We always had high expectations for this summer.
A year that has seen a relative, and frankly unacceptable, lack of in-season managerial shenanigans always held the enticing possibility of a summer of “Managergeddon” as payback.
But we never expected things to turn into a complete disaster so quickly.
Roberto De Zerbi leaving Brighton this summer wasn’t a huge surprise, but the fact that it was announced before the season actually finished certainly was.
We feel a little embarrassed that we could still get caught. What happened at the Chelsea clown showYet, to our eternal shame, it was exactly that that Clearlake sacked their longest-serving manager after a glorious end to the season, securing stability in European football and providing a clear sense of things going smoothly after 14 games in which their only defeat was to Arsenal.
Details about F365’s Chelsea Show:
👉 10 more predictions for Chelsea’s failures this summer: McKenna, Jackson, ‘the next Enzo’ and…
👉 Todd Boley’s mistake ranking at Chelsea: Moves to 17th after Pochettino’s sacking
👉 Pochettino speaks out about players’ ‘primitive’ but brutal training, Chelsea leaders hold responsible for injuries
But that ridiculous slice of nonsense paled in comparison to Wednesday’s revelation that Vincent Kompany has managed to steer Burnley to 19th place by winning both of their games against a team that hasn’t fared well. Inevitably, he caught the attention of Bayern Aktor Munich..
A blunder that would make Roberto Martinez blush. Craig Bellamy becomes Bayern Munich manager. What on earth did Harry Kane do in a past life? It must have been awful.
The absurd speed and intensity of the managerial news cycle has led to Liverpool liverpool – Yes this week The team announced a new manager for the first time in about nine years. And within 24 hours it was completely trampled and swallowed up by events.
But within all this madness lies a kernel of sanity. There’s one club that can’t believe their good fortune. And it’s Manchester United, with an opening goal that even Erling Haaland couldn’t miss.
This is a great result for Sir Jim and his friends. In just one week, Dan Ashworth doesn’t understand how email works It would be a serious and embarrassing story for the club. Almost no one noticed this week and they were just handed their ideal manager on a platter.
So far this summer, although we say summer, in fact the English season is not over yet, defined as 2 plus 2 = approximately 854737324819, Pochettino’s move to United has been There is no doubt that 4 is the correct answer.
It makes sense: for now we have to assume that the current level of absurdity doesn’t extend to real football, but Erik ten Hag’s FA Cup final loss to Manchester City will undoubtedly be his last game as Manchester United manager.
The manager is so deeply in denial about how serious the problems with his squad and his approach truly are that it has reached a stage where not even a second Cup win in two seasons can mask the underlying issues.
He’s not the right man for United, certainly not for the new regime. The problem for United – and for Ten Hag, his get-out-of-jail-free card – was that there was no ideal manager available remotely. Gareth Southgate or Graham Potter might have the right personality but don’t need the CV at club level. There are elite managers but they didn’t really suit the obvious atmosphere of INEOS’ United project. There was potential for success but a divisive and snarky 18 months for Tuchel and Conte didn’t offer much appeal.
But now, inexplicably available to Pochettino, there is a surprisingly simple and elegant solution. He is the manager United have long wanted, but even when things were at their best at Spurs, it always felt like the only job on his radar in English football.
Ratcliffe was known to have wanted Pochettino at Nice and we always felt the timing of Pochettino’s United takeover was a little unfortunate coming so soon after he took the Chelsea job, a job that was never really suited to him.
Pochettino himself has been lucky here, with the United manager’s job potentially becoming available, making him a pretty reasonable demand to keep his place and continue his position at Chelsea. There is no doubt that this was a factor in my feeling that I could do it.
It’s a summer where great managers have a lot of cards up their sleeves, and with Kompany moving to Bayern Munich and the highly impressive but surprisingly untested Kieran McKenna likely to become the next Chelsea manager, it’s a great time for Pochettino to be unemployed.
It was catastrophically stupid to sack Chelsea and equally stupid for United not to act.
There was one big obstacle preventing United from sacking Ten Hag: they didn’t have the perfect candidate to replace him.
For Chelsea to remove that obstacle would be an incredible unforced error, made even funnier by the fact that it’s not even the stupidest aspect of their decision.
Read: Who will be Manchester United’s next manager?
