Krishnan Sreekumar
Defender Alex Telles shares the Manchester United dressing room’s feelings on the expected arrival of the new manager
As quoted by the Express, Manchester United defender Alex Telles has revealed what the dressing room feels about the impending arrival of the new manager in the summer, saying it was a discussion for next season.
The club is currently led by Ralf Rangnick, who has only been appointed on an interim basis until the end of the campaign, when he is expected to make way for a new permanent head coach to lead the team next term.
Telles said that the arrival of a new boss does not influence the team because they know what they have to do, and that other people at the club were working on the new manager, which is something to consider next season.
“No, I don’t think it influences us because we know what we have to do. There are people at the club working on the new manager – but that’s for next season.”
The 29-year-old, who moved to United in 2020, will be playing under his third manager during his playing career in England. He has previously turned out for the team under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Rangnick, with the latter succeeding the former. Solskjaer was sacked following a string of poor results that saw the team slip down the Premier League table.
“We need to stay focussed”
With the team sitting in seventh place in the points tally, the Red Devils are in danger of missing out on playing in the Champions League if they do not manage to finish in the top four of the league table by the end of the current season.
Telles reminded everyone of just that, saying that the next campaign depends on what they manage to do in the remaining games of this term, saying that they need to stay focused and that they cannot waste time thinking about who the next manager will be.
“And next season depends on what we do in these remaining games, so we need to stay focused. We can’t think about who the next manager will be, we need to think about working hard in our next game.”
The former Porto defender has been filling in for Luke Shaw a lot this time around, with the English left-back falling prey to injury issues often this season. Last term, Telles had to settle for a place on the bench in a backup role to Shaw.
He played in the last Premier League game against Everton but had to suffer a 1-0 loss to the Toffees as we fell behind to a deflected Anthony Gordon striker that turned out to be a major blow to our ambition of clinching fourth spot by the summer.
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The period beyond the summer is expected to usher in a new era with a new manager, who will be tasked with rebuilding the side and breaking our five-year-long trophy drought. Our last title came under Jose Mourinho in 2017, when we won the UEFA Europa League.
Telles is correct in urging his teammates to focus on finishing the season strongly, in order to set ourselves up with a good foundation next campaign. Hopefully, we see him and his fellow teammates bounce back from last weekend’s Everton defeat and start a good run of form until the summer.
