CQ: Is Time The Enemy? …
Is Carlos Queiroz today’s new favourite in the long campaign to succeed Sir Alex as United’s manager?
Ferguson says he will not announce his retirement date, leaving observers to sing hymns about the worthiness of Roy Keane, Mark Hughes, Jose Mourinho, Johnny ‘New Flavour’ Foreigner etc etc as the next United boss.
Chief Executive David Gill, told the Guardian earlier this week that United have no provisional shortlist of candidates to be contacted a minute after Ferguson decides to move on.
“We will cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said, “but we haven’t even discussed it yet. You can have ideas of another manager who you think is great and then a season later he’s out of favour. Stuart Pearce, for example, was touted as the next England manager and then suddenly he loses his job [at Manchester City].”
The Guardian wrote up the claims of Keano and Mark Hughes. Cue an intervention within 24 hours from Fergie’s current right hand man, presenting his credentials as United’s ‘Mr Entertainment,’ a man steeped in United’s glorious tradition. At the same time, Queiroz reminded everyone that his finger prints are all over United’s recent success and preparations for the future.
“The systems and strategies and the general way teams approached the game had become so defensive,” Quieroz claimed. “That is why it was so important, not just for Manchester United but for the game as a whole, that we won the championship. We proved it is possible to win trophies with an attacking style of football.”
Amen!
“The manager is a great believer in playing an entertaining brand of football,” added Queiroz. “United needs to play with fantasy, imagination and creativity. We need to produce attacking football and be sure when we have the trophies in our hands, it is because we deserve it.”
Queiroz’s comments were surely the broad lines of his letter of application to be United’s next manager.
Many press observers reminded their readers that it was CQ who was held responsible for United’s dull football during Fergie’s wilderness years.
“Queiroz’s comments will be greeted with a wry smile by the body of United fans who felt the former Real Madrid coach was behind the decision to abandon the club’s traditional all-action 4-4-2 formation a couple of years ago,” the Mail reported.
At the same time, press commentators acknowledged just how much the coach’s star is now in the ascendant. The Independent reported: “Queiroz’s stock has risen at Old Trafford since last summer, with the coach playing an instrumental role in Cristiano Ronaldo’s impressive response to his World Cup vilification and decision to sign a new five-year contract, plus in the £30m-plus signings of Nani and Anderson from Sporting Lisbon and Porto respectively.”
The coach would seem well-placed to inherit the poisoned chalice that is the United manager’s job in the post-Ferguson era, providing success is maintained in Fergie’s twighlight years.
Sir Alex has suggested that he will remain in his post for another two years. At 54, CQ may be beginning to see the finishing line of his own career too and might consider that his position in the jostling for the United succession weakens with every year Ferguson delays his retirement. A younger man would be a powerful draw for United’s decision-makers. As mentioned elsewhere in these pages, every year that Ferguson remains is an added opportunity for Hughes or Keane’s sponsors to flesh out the candidature of their champion.
Queiroz may be the inside candidate to succeed Ferguson. He may earn the manager’s endorsement and enjoy a close relationship with United’s key players. Yet, in spite of such advantages, it may be that CQ is weakened simply by the march of time.
