Ralf Rangnick had a pretty simple job really – just steady the ship at Manchester United for a few months. Just get the club through to the end of the season without any chaos. Just bring a bit of a feel-good factor back to the club by trying something different.
Remarkably, the German tactician already seems to be doing about the worst job imaginable, with Anthony Martial hitting back at the interim manager for his comments about him refusing to play for the club.
See below as Martial took to Instagram to make it clear that it wasn’t true that he’d refused to play for the Red Devils as he insists he has too much respect for the fans to ever try a stunt like that…
“I will never refuse to play a match for Man United,” his statement read.
“I’ve been here for 7 years and I never disrespected and will never disrespect the club and the fans.”
This looks pretty embarrassing for Rangnick, who, in the video clip below, said that Martial didn’t want to be involved in Man Utd’s squad to play against Aston Villa yesterday.
“He didn’t want to be in the squad,” Rangnick said.
“He would have been in the squad normally but he didn’t want to and that was the reason why he didn’t travel with us yesterday.”
Martial hasn’t been at his best for United for some time, so Rangnick could surely have just dropped him without needing any other excuses to justify the decision.
The Frenchman could certainly do more to up his game, but he can now feel justified in being pretty annoyed at Rangnick portraying him in this way.
What on earth is going to happen next at England’s most chaotic football club?