Manchester United are preparing to embark on another new era from this weekend, with new interim manager Ralf Rangnick set to take charge for the game against Crystal Palace on Sunday — with one former professional insisting the German will heavily influence every footballing aspect at the club.
The 63-year-old, who has been given the United reins until the end of the season, has most recently been credited with launching RB Leipzig's rise to the higher echelons of German football over the past few years. He joins the club from a director role with Lokomotiv Moscow.
But with very little knowledge about how Rangnick will approach the current troubles at United, former Chelsea and England international Graeme Le Saux has suggested the decision to appoint the 63-year-old will have a long-lasting impact at Old Trafford.
Le Saux, who worked alongside Rangnick briefly at RB Leipzig in 2019, overseeing his methods across a two-day period began by saying: ''He had involvement in every aspect of the club,'' he told NBC.
''He understands that you've got to be able to communicate between all of your departments, all your football departments, all your infrastructure departments and work on a plan.
''When it was announced that he was possible going to take over at United as interim manager for 6 months my first thought was that there had to be more to it than that because he's not a 6 month guy. Then it turned out he has this consultancy role to help build the infrastructure which I think is going to take years.
''The things that I found from him was his enthusiasm, his knowledge of every part of the game, he challenges every part whether it's the medical department, whether its recruitment or even constantly challenging himself to improve the team.''
Lots has been made of the potential changes that will come under Rangnick during his tenure. But given his reputation for developing younger players into future stars of the game, United fans have been excited about what could be achieved with the current plethora of talent they have in Mason Greenwood, Jadon Sancho and Donny van de Beek.
Le Saux continued, indicating the gap between the youth sides was shortened quickly at Leipzig as the average of the squad was reduced dramatically to include the academy talent at his disposal.
'He added: 'One of the big stand outs for me at Leipzig at that time was the fact they took out their whole Under 23 team, they went Under 18 straight to first team.
''When I asked him why did you do that, he said we want to reduce the age of our first team squad which was brought down from 29 to 24 whilst I was there and they said therefore we don't need a Under 23 squad because they're either in the first team, out on loan or still with the Under 18's.
''It's about connecting all the dots and joining that all together,'' concluded Le Saux.
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