Postecoglou to Man Utd? Five Premier League Managers Tipped for Shock Moves to Rival Clubs
One of five unconventional but potentially excellent next steps for Premier League managers is Ange Postecoglou joining Manchester United.
Remember, Ange Postecoglou’s transfer to Nottingham Forest was unexpected but might have been fantastic.
Fabian Hurzeler to Chelsea
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The 32-year-old has performed admirably in the Premier League, weathering bad spells of play and coming out stronger as a result.
Brighton’s eighth-place finish last season was a strong return, and it speaks volumes about how far they’ve come that a top-half finish feels normal and that they may have should have finished one or two places higher.
Chelsea is snatching Brighton for another important asset, and if they’re going to hoard all the best teenagers in the world, they might as well have a baby in the dugout too.
Enzo Maresca has been in the dugout for Chelsea longer than most people thought he would, but the team is at a crossroads this season, and he will be at risk if/when they do not kick on.
Hurzeler, like most Brighton employees, will eventually move on to greener pastures, and the AMEX Stadium is one of the best places in Europe for a manager/player to hone their craft.
If he leads Chelsea to another top-ten finish and possibly some overdue trophy this season, big clubs will come calling.
Hurzeler would be a fantastic substitute if Chelsea were to continue putting projects ahead of the prefabricated finished product, even though they are now one of the many teams being strongly linked to Glasner and Iraola.
Marco Silva to Aston Villa
In comparison to Oliver Glasner of Crystal Palace and Andoni Iraola of AFC Bournemouth, Silva is the odd man out among the three Premier League managers whose contracts expire at the end of this season.
He might have to make due with a less opulent position than Glasner and Iraola, who are now making headlines for their enormous work at high-fliers Palace and Bournemouth, even though it seems probable that all three managers will get an upward move in 2020.
Although Silva’s odds of signing with a Big Six team anytime soon are limited to nonexistent, he also deserves his next job to be at a team at least in the running for Europe.
Three factors make Nottingham Forest the clear choice for the next move, including Silva defying expectations to maintain a close relationship with Evangelos Marinakis, while Aston Villa might offer an alternative.
Though concerning difficulties still exist at Aston Villa as they struggle for goals and run the risk of losing their finest players in future windows because of a) their long-term PSR woes and b) player ambition, a four-game winning streak has put an end to the premature Unai Emery sack talk.
The same is true of Emery; after leading Aston Villa as far as he can, he might choose to try his hand at running a top team once more.
Even though Silva would be an uninspired downgrade, he would be a safe choice to take over.
Ruben Amorim to Nottingham Forest
What about a manager swap that has never been done before? Since Man Utd will probably be playing in the Championship by the conclusion of this dreadful time, co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s statement that Amorim would be allowed three years there had to be a fake.
In reality, Amorim needs results fast, and a win over fellow crisis club Liverpool on October 19 would be a great place to start if they want to win the Premier League twice in a row for the first time.
However, since Amorim has demonstrated that the Red Devils will falter at the first hint of difficulty, they will inevitably continue to be caught in a terrible cycle of inconsistency until his departure.
With a lineup that isn’t appropriate for this set of players and will never be suitable for Manchester United, Amorim is dying on his sword, and this will ultimately be his downfall at Old Trafford.
Amorim will have little issue finding another position after leaving Manchester United, thanks to his insistence on his formation.
And just as it would make sense for both parties for Postecoglou to join Manchester United, the same is true for Amorim and Forest.
The Premier League underdogs already have a collection of players that fit the head coach’s lineup, which is undoubtedly better suited for a team that is struggling than a powerhouse like United.
Enzo Maresca to Everton
The door may finally open for Maresca at Everton, though, since he has done enough at Stamford Bridge with the Club World Cup and Europa Conference League victories to earn another Premier League club after Chelsea.
Thanks in part to excellent management and the beneficial effects of their summer acquisitions, Everton’s relocation from Goodison Park to their ridiculously named new stadium has gone as well as it could have, and beloved manager David Moyes is doing a fantastic job at the club.
Although Moyes has a limited lifespan and will eventually run into the same issue he did at West Ham, it felt sense to bring him back to oversee the significant change at Everton over the past year.
Although it looks like Everton is now on pace to return to the European scene, the club’s ambitious new owners truly supported Moyes in the summer.
However, eventually, club executives and possibly supporters will grow weary of the manager’s practical style and call for a change of strategy.
Clubs must be cautious about what they hope to achieve after firing Moyes, as West Ham discovered, but they may view the hiring of contemporary coach Maresca as a coup that may propel them to new heights. It’s another question whether that works.
Ange Postecoglou to Manchester United
Yes, listen to me. I’m not saying that Postecoglou should be given the Manchester United position after his failings at Nottingham Forest and Spurs, as there are many better candidates available to take Ruben Amorim’s place, with Iraola possibly being the most qualified.
The Red Devils would be better off with him than Amorim, and the underperforming Forest manager, who is the front-runner to be fired despite only seven games in his position, would be much better off at Manchester United than the City Ground.
For a number of reasons, including the fact that his playing mentality is entirely different from Nuno Espirito Santo’s, Postecoglou to Forest was doomed from the beginning.
Nuno’s style is also ingrained in Forest’s team, and Postecoglou attempted—and, predictably, failed—to change their strategy in the middle of the season.
But at Man Utd, the appointment of Postecoglou would definitely trigger an immediate upturn in performances and results, mostly from a switch to the more-suited 4-2-3-1 configuration that would allow Man Utd’s best stars to be played in their favoured places. For Amorim, it may actually be that simple.
