Pep, Klopp, Giggs, Van Gaal: who should replace David Moyes at Manchester United?
DAVID Moyes is on the brink following another humbling loss, but who are the leading candidates should Manchester United pull the trigger?
David Moyes is hanging to his job at Manchester United by a thread after yet another humiliating defeat at Old Trafford.
The boss has overseen home defeats against Manchester City and Liverpool in just over a week, with dissenting voices in the stands now growing louder.
Moyes was confronted by a supporter during Tuesday’s 3-0 hammering at the hands of City, while security guards had to stand by his ‘Chosen One’ banner.
Is time running out? Sportsmail takes a look at the potential successors to the Scot if he were to be given the sack by United.
RYAN GIGGS
The word around Carrington is that United will turn to Giggs for the remaining games of the season if the pressure to sack Moyes becomes intolerable. The Old Trafford veteran is understood to have become an increasingly peripheral figure in Moyes’s coaching set-up and there is widespread surprise that Giggs has not played more as United’s season has unravelled.
SIR ALEX FERGUSON
The fans’ frustration towards Moyes is starting to deflect on to the man who chose the Everton boss as his successor nine months ago. If United decide to wield the axe now, would Ferguson feel obliged to leave the directors’ box and take the reins on a temporary basis, just as Sir Matt Busby did after Wilf McGuinness’ ill-fated tenure in 1970?
MIKE PHELAN
Ferguson’s former No 2 has been out of work since Moyes replaced the backroom staff following his appointment last year. Phelan knows the club and the players inside out and could be trusted as a safe pair of hands to guide United through the most turbulent spell in their recent history until a permanent successor can be found.
LOUIS VAN GAAL
The Holland coach has made no secret of his desire to manage in the Premier League after the World Cup this summer and has already been linked to Tottenham. Whether Van Gaal would be able to (or want to) step in immediately is another matter but he is bound to be on the list of long-term replacements if Moyes goes.
JURGEN KLOPP
The Borussia Dortmund coach’s stock has risen steadily and he would come into the reckoning as a permanent successor to Moyes who, coincidentally, was mentioned as a possible replacement for Klopp while at Everton. With Dortmund through to the Champions League quarter-finals against Real Madrid, the German is unlikely to quit his current job right now.
PEP GUARDIOLA
Likewise, there is little chance of Guardiola leaving the Allianz while Bayern – who face Moyes’s side in the Champions League – remain on course to retain their European crown after winning the Bundesliga again. But divisions are believed to have opened up between the Spaniard and his Bayern bosses Franz Beckenbauer and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, leading to speculation that Guardiola may leave after only a year in charge.