Rene Meulensteen talks exclusively to William Hill

Former Manchester United first team coach from 2007-2013 Rene Meulensteen spoke exclusively with William Hill Vegas on the current Manchester United team and what could happen moving forward. With a lengthy managerial career spanning over 30 years, Rene Meulensteen shares his playing career and early managerial career journey.

Rene Meulensteen on the current situation at Manchester United

The trend with Manchester United is they have regressed, and that is the worrying thing. There’s no coming away from it because the numbers are backing that up. As simple as that. You look at the Champions League campaign, you look at their Premier League campaign, 13 losses, a goal difference of minus three. They’re in 8th position in the Premier League. They’re not guaranteed to get into Europe. A lot of signs are they are not moving in the right direction. If you analyse those trends, you would obviously say, Erik Ten Hag probably isn’t the right man to lead Manchester United forward.

Now, obviously, we also know all the changes have been taking place behind the scenes with Jim Radcliffe coming in, Sir David Brailsford as well there, Barretta, they come in, Wilcox, maybe then Ashworth. So, there’s a lot of happening behind the scenes. And the most important person to answer that question if Eric Ten Hag is the right man is those I have mentioned. And I’m sure that those people must have had conversations with Eric Ten Hag already, with staff, with players, to make a fair judgement of that, because he is not a bad coach, and I’m sure he’s not a bad manager because his previous record with Ajax has proven that.

At this moment in time, it is a very difficult and tough time for him, and all the signs are pointing in the wrong direction. So, if you would ask me personally, and what I’ve seen, I doubt it whether he will get where he wants it to be with the team.

Rene Meulensteen on Thomas Tuchel being linked with Manchester United job:

Looking at a head coach for Manchester United you need to look at someone who has a big personality, they need to have charisma and someone who speaks well in the media.
They must also have a strong engagement with the fans. You look at Jurgen Klopp, he understands what it means to manage Liverpool and the fans respond to this, as do the players.

The manager needs to have clear vision and convey that. You look at Ten Hag and he has struggled to deliver some of these. Especially in the media, he doesn’t convey a strong belief.
Now, looking at Tuchel, he has the pedigree, he has had success at top level, he has won the Champions League, he has managed top teams, he has managed big players as well. However,
there is a small mark on some exits from clubs which have had some controversy. So yes, he is somebody the Club should look at. He can bring a vision, he can bring expertise of managing at a top Club. Plus, he can deal with the media which is key.

You look at the names linked with Manchester United and there is a variety of those with different visions. Tuchel, Southgate and Potter are some names. The new Football ownership at the Club must have a clear vision for the future and then the Head Coach will fit this. Southgate has good media profile, but domestic football, he has not had success or enough strong experience to manage Manchester United.

Rene Meulensteen on Jaden Sancho

It’s likely Jaden Sancho will not play for Manchester United again if Erik Ten Hag remains in charge.. He was doing well at Dortmund before wanting a move to a big Club, but for some reason, he came back to Manchester United and fell out with Ten Hag. Now he is back at Dortmund thriving in an environment he is comfortable with.
It’s strange why it hasn’t worked out at Man Utd but you can see he has a lot of talent and will now be playing in a Champions League Final.

Rene Meulensteen on the current Manchester United squad

The stats and performances suggest that this team needs to be changed for Manchester United to challenge for major honours. Defensively they are conceding too many chances. It’s clear that the team aren’t working hard enough for one another, and you look at the stats of some of the players and it’s clear that some of these players aren’t performing anywhere near where they can. Yes, there has been many changes defensively during the season, but you can’t excuse some of the results. Erik Ten Hag during his time at Ajax had a squad who enjoyed possession football. You look at this Manchester United team and this isn’t the case at all. I am sure you will see a number of players leave the Club this summer as whether it’s Erik Ten Hag or a new Head Coach, this squad needs to be looked at as it’s nowhere near competitive enough to be challenging for the Premier League and that is where Manchester United need and should be.

Rene Meulensteen on the underlying reason for Manchester United consistent failure since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson?

I think, if you think back to the fact eleven years ago when Sir Alex Ferguson decided to leave, you can question the fact how all that transition has been mis-managed by the club. If you are in a very successful situation, you need to analyse and really realise why you are so successful. Yes, Sir Alex Ferguson was the biggest part of that, that a lot revolved around him. I would have liked to see a different transition rather than him stepping away from the club and you’re bringing other people in, which bring other people in. Then the two main pillars of any club to be successful is stability and continuity. Stability is the people that stay there for a longer period of time, knowing how it all works. The continuity is the vision that you have to be successful and maintain success over short, medium, or long-term period. Now, if that has been taken away, and other people have to come and replace that with having the history of winning almost everything over a period of 26 years, yes, those are big shoes to fill, but we must not forget we’ve already covered now 11 years.

In terms of those big shoes to fill, I think that has gone beyond that part now. They’ve been living in the shadow of Sir Alex Ferguson and trying to build their own new identity, or even better, they should have been able to build on that identity that Man United, that Sir Alex Ferguson put in place over those 26 years.

Rene Meulensteen on Michael Owen’s comments suggesting he should be sacked before the FA Cup final?

Michael has obviously got a strong opinion, and there’s no problem at all. There’s plenty of them. I think there is in this moment in time, I think 50% that would agree with Michael and 50% that would say give him more time, because recent history has shown with Manchester United, over the last 11 years, we had so many managers, and we keep getting rid of them, and we’re not going improving. So that is the one thing. But I can see where he’s coming from, because the season is running away from Man United. I mean, you come to the close to the end of the road, you’ve got three games left, Arsenal, which will be difficult. They’re fighting to win the Premier League, so that won’t be easy. Then it’s Newcastle at home. Again, they fight for a European place. That won’t be easy as they are a good side. Then Brighton away. All three games, potentially, could be three games they can’t win. So that means they finish outside that European spot. You look at what could happen and Manchester United could be in the Conference League. I mean, absolutely, it’s almost too ridiculous to discuss this, but that is where we’re faced with. And then you got the FA Cup final. You can see what Michael is saying that if Ten Hag is not the man to take United forward, you might as well do something now to create a shock effect to maybe get the maximum out of these three league games and the FA Cup final. That’s where he’s coming from.

Rene Meulensteen Son his playing career and early managerial career

My playing career, you have to see in the perspective of where I was born. I was born in ’64, so I started playing, obviously, when I was young. In the ’70s, I grew up basically with the golden generation of Johan Cruyff, which then put football, especially Dutch football a little bit more on the world map. But I was born in a small village right in between the big cities of Eindhoven, Venlo and Nijmegen. At that time, football has always been a big part in Holland, because if you look at Holland, every village had a football club with great facilities. In that respect, that’s probably one of the reasons that explains why Holland has produced so many good players. But scouting at the time wasn’t existing. So I basically had to work my own way up, which I did. So eventually, I played in a nearby club that played in the third tier in Holland back then and now the tiers have changed.

And I left really because I wanted to pursue my coaching career quite early. Then I got the opportunity to work in Qatar. I basically stopped playing when I was 29. Then I went to do my badges in Holland and England and I then pursued my coaching career working with the legendary Wiel Coerver in Qatar. That was one of the best things I’ve done because that was the reason, initially, why Sir Alex wanted to bring me to United. But prior to that, I had an opportunity to manage two clubs in Qatar. One was called Al Ittihad, which went really well. We won two major trophies with them. We won the Arab Cup, we won the League Cup, and then I went to Al Sadd, which is another big club in Qatar, which I won the FA Cup, and then I came to Manchester United. And then I had to start again within the academy and then worked my way up. Then I took the reserves in 2005, 2006 with players like Gerard Pique and Johnny Evans.

Then I got sounded out by Brondby. And that was a weird scenario because I didn’t have any intention of leaving Manchester United at all. But I got called in the manager’s office at one point and he says, Well, Brondby is keen to speak to you. I know you’ve managed in Qatar and you did really well. I can see what you’ve done with the reserves. Obviously, I don’t want to lose you, he says, But I also don’t want to take an opportunity away from you when I know the people that want to contact you and I think they’re good people. So that’s when I went the sidestep to Brondby, which was obviously a good experience. They are a big Club in Denmark. After a while it was clear the direction I wanted to take the Club in wasn’t aligned with the powers at be, so this wasn’t going to be a long term project for me. Then obviously, that’s when I came back to Manchester United and I had this long spell with Sir Alex as his first team coach.