Wayne Rooney has tipped Mauricio Pochettino to become the next Manchester United manager, believing his Premier League experience and history of blooding youths places him ahead of Ajax boss Erik ten Hag.
Derby manager Rooney believes the new manager must overhaul the squad this summer, claiming the departures of Paul Pogba and Cristiano Ronaldo should be part of the upcoming rebuild.
The exit from Europe last month means the club are suffering their worst trophy drought in 40 years with United’s last piece of silverware being the Europa League triumph in 2017 under Jose Mourinho.
Speaking on Monday Night Football, Rooney covered a range of issues engulfing his former club at a time when United are still challenging to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
“It’s been a strange season,” Rooney told Sky Sports. “I’ve been to the ground to watch them live a few times and they look like a team of individuals. When they make a mistake it always looks very difficult for them to recover as a team.
“I can look at it and say it hasn’t been good enough as we have that group of players they need to be doing better. They’re going through a tough time as a club, and I think what everyone wants is for them to get the manager situation sorted as soon as possible, and they have to rebuild for the next two or three years to make sure they’re challenging again.”
Rangnick has suggested it could take 18 months or “two or three transfer windows” before United can challenge for the Premier League title again.
Rooney responded: “Absolutely. For Manchester United not to be challenging, I think they’d want the season to stop now and forget about the Champions League. They’re not going to compete in the competition as it stands even if they qualified for it.
“They have to rebuild the squad and everything around the first team and the club to make sure they put themselves in a position in two or three years’ time where they can actually go and challenge again for the Premier League.”