Paul Scholes says there is one manager ‘streets ahead’ of other candidates when it comes to replacing Michael Carrick at Manchester United.
Carrick remains in charge of the Red Devils, but after a nightmare start to the season he is not expected to last much longer in the job.
A 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth at Old Trafford on Sunday made it eight matches without a win and one victory in eight Premier League outings.
Performances and results have been awful, while there has also been off-field controversy, with Lisandro Martinez speaking out against the club’s hierarchy and club captain Bruno Fernandes criticising Carrick and his coaching staff.
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It is hard to see Carrick turning things around and if a change does come then Scholes feels former Chelsea, Juventus, Napoli and Tottenham boss Antonio Conte is the man for the job.
Presented with three names: Conte, Eddie Howe and Julian Naglesmann, Scholes says there is clearly a right choice.
However, he recognises the volatile nature of the Italian and questions if he would even want to come to Old Trafford.
Speaking on The Good, The Bad and The Football, Scholes said: ‘You’d have to pick a manager who you think will get us back to being a competitive team for the Premier League. Out of them three, Antonio Conte’s the man, but he comes with a big f***ing massive warning.
‘He’s made noises that he wants to come and I’m pretty sure the club would have spoke to all three of them.
‘I can’t understand why he’d want this job because I don’t think the team’s good enough for him, personally.’
The Red Devils legend suggested another candidate in Aston Villa manager Unai Emery, but still plumped for Conte as his first choice.
‘Is the answer staring us right in the face in Unai Emery?’ Scholes asked. ‘He’s won the Europa League with Aston Villa, do you know what an achievement that is?
‘He gets a new team every single year because they have to sell their best players. and he keeps producing, keeps producing.
‘Is everyone put off by his Arsenal and PSG days? Probably, because it’s a big club. But it might be staring us in the face. He’d have to take United over Villa, I think he would.
‘I think Conte’s the best one around. When I’m talking best in class and you talk them four, I think Antonio Conte’s miles ahead of all of them.
‘You think Juventus, he went to Napoli and goes and wins the league with them.’
(Picture: REUTERS)
Conte has taken charge of nine clubs in his managerial career and his longest stint at any was three seasons as Juventus boss from 2011-14. Nowhere else has he stayed longer than two campaigns.
Scholes accepts that may well happen at Old Trafford as well, but reckons that if he could quickly fire the club back into contention and then leave, it would still be a successful stint in charge.
‘He’s volatile, I know he’s volatile and might be a bit of a madman, but when you talk about successful managers at top clubs he’s streets ahead,’ said Scholes.
‘I don’t care if it’s short term. I don’t care if he’s there 18 months and he gets us challenging for the league, that would be a success.
‘The more and more I think about it, Conte needs to come in and start banging some heads together.’
Another former Manchester United star, who played under Conte at Inter Milan, has warned of the potential ‘disaster’ of appointing the Italian.
Ashley Young told Overlap Daily: ‘I’ve worked underneath him at Inter. He’s crazy by the way, crazy. A lot of talk has been about Man United’s running stats. If they’re not going to run and Antonio Conte goes in there, it’s going to be a disaster I think.
‘The training sessions were a lot of 11 vs 11, at times a little bit boring. Meetings were long. When I say long, I’m talking, if we lost a game, we could go in for the meeting and he’d stop literally everything and you could be in there for three or four hours.
‘I think that’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t last long at places because it’s not just the players he tries to test mentally, but the board as well, and the owners. I think that people get annoyed with him and think “it’s time for you to go”.’