Ralf Rangnick Has Decided To Walk Away From Role At Manchester United

Ralf Rangnick has decided to leave his part-time consultancy role at Manchester United to focus solely on being the manager of Austria.

The 63-year-old, who took interim charge following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in November, agreed to continue in a two-year consultancy role after the 2021/22 campaign.

Plenty of fans were encouraged by the appointment of Rangnick, who had enjoyed spells at RB Leipzig and Schalke, but he ultimately failed to turn around United's poor campaign and the club moved quickly to bring in Erik ten Hag.

Rangnick, meanwhile, was recently appointed as the new head coach of Austria – a decision that meant his two-year consultancy role at Old Trafford would have been limited.

It was a situation that was later described as 'nonsense' by pundit Jamie Carragher.

But now, ahead of Austria's upcoming Nations League fixtures against Croatia, Denmark and France, Rangnick confirmed in a press conference on Sunday that his time at Old Trafford is over due to the demands of his new role.

Manchester United confirmed the news in a statement on their official website.

It read: “We would like to thank Ralf Rangnick for his efforts as interim manager over the past six months.

"By mutual agreement, Ralf will now focus solely on his new role as manager of the Austria national team and will not therefore be taking up a consultancy role at Old Trafford.

“We would like to wish Ralf the best of luck in this next chapter of his career.”

Following an embarrassing 4-1 loss to Watford in the league, United sacked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and appointed the experienced Rangnick to try and steady the ship.

United instead finished in sixth place with their worst ever points total in Premier League history.

The Reds were knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship side Middlesbrough in the fourth round, lost to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League and suffered a huge amount of issues, both on and off the field.

In recent months, leaks from behind the scenes at Old Trafford have exposed how bad it has been of late.

A report by the Manchester Evening News described the squad as a "toxic mix of backbiting and spitefulness."

And it has been suggested that academy products Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford received "no instructions, no game plan and no position plan" throughout the 2021/22 campaign.

In fact, one player at United is said to have referred to interim manager Rangnick as 'specs', while American coach Chris Armas was given the nickname 'Ted Lasso.'