Manchester United should have met with Pep Guardiola
Club officials at Manchester United are scrambling to deny meeting with Pep Guardiola
Manchester United officials have been quick to deny any rumor accusing them of meeting with Pep Guardiola. The truth of the matter is that the club should be ashamed if they haven’t pursued a meeting with football’s biggest managerial free agent.
BBC Sport is reporting that the club has officially thrown cold water on the suggestion that United officials met with Guardiola in Paris last week. While I can understand why the club would want to distance themselves from these rumors, the reality of the situation is that it would be irresponsible of United not to push for a meeting with Guardiola.
This is the Premier League, not youth football. It’s not the job of the club to protect its manager Louis van Gaal. It’s the job of the higher-ups at Manchester United to do what’s best for their club. Not attempting to sound out Guardiola about taking over at Old Trafford would be negligent.
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Van Gaal’s reign at United certainly isn’t going as planned. Even the most optimistic fan at Old Trafford would admit that they have concerns about his ability to turn the team’s performance around.
That’s why they have to do whatever is necessary to gauge Guardiola’s potential interest. If, as many people believe, he is a better manager than van Gaal then they owe it to themselves to see if they can bring him to Manchester.
The more conservative among you will claim that United officials “owe” van Gaal some sort of courtesy for being their manager. That’s a wonderful romantic notion, but it’s not real life. If a club truly acted that way in this day and age it would be a great way to get them relegated.
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United fans have come to expect a certain type of performance that they just aren’t getting at the moment. It’s the responsibility of club management to give the people what they want. If there’s even a slight chance that Pep Guardiola could restore the club to its past glory then they owe it to themselves to gauge his interest.
Only Pep Guardiola and a few Manchester United officials truly know if they met in Paris last week. The only thing we can be sure of is that Manchester United clearly should have taken such a meeting. They are an under performing club under their current manager and Guardiola might be just the cure for what ails the fans at Old Trafford.