Following the departure of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Manchester United appointed Ralf Rangnick as the club’s interim manager. His time in the hot seat will come to an end after the end of the 2021/22 season, and the German will subsequently take a consultancy role at Old Trafford for the next couple of years, while the club look set to bring in a permanent manager in the summer.
Manchester United have already been heavily linked with the likes of Mauricio Pochettino and Erik ten Hag but other candidates such as Zinedine Zidane, Brendan Rodgers and many others have also been brought up.
One such name is that of Southampton’s Ralph Hasenhuttl. The Austrian manager already has a lot of history with Rangnick, from their time together at RB Leipzig, where both played a huge part in establishing the club as one of the best in the Bundesliga.
As a result, the idea of those two working together at Manchester United might be exciting, especially considering the fact that Hasenhuttl already has significant experience of managing in the Premier League with Southampton.
Hasenhuttl responds to Manchester United rumours
Despite the rumours, Hasenhuttl currently remains focused on his job at hand with Southampton. As reported by The Sun, on replacing Rangnick at Manchester United, he said:
"“These things aren’t interesting me.”"
He also added that he did not want to speak about his future:
"“I don’t want to speak about my future.”"
Hasenhuttl’s current contract at Southampton will expire in the summer of 2024. On the other hand, it is unlikely that Rangnick will be made the permanent manager at Manchester United after the struggles in results and performances that the club has gone through since his arrival.
Thus, it is safe to say that the club will need to appoint a new long-term manager sooner or later, but at this point of time, it feels unlikely that Hasenhuttl will be that man. While highly-rated, he just does not seem like the marquee name that Manchester United are searching for right now.