Man United Legend Wants Star Player OUT, Backs Former Arsenal Manager to Take Over
Former Manchester United defender Paul Parker has spoken exclusively to Free Bets on the sacking of Ruben Amorim after 14 months in charge at Old Trafford and who he can see taking charge permanently.
Do you think that the board has to shoulder some of the blame here?
They've got to take a lot of the blame because initially they knew what they were dealing with when he was selling himself to them to get the job, he told them exactly what he wanted to do and he told them the way he wanted to play. I imagine they turned around and said to him, but what if things change or don't go according to plan?
He was clear in what he wanted to do and they accepted that. So of course they have to accept responsibility for employing him. It seems like once you've got a tie to a director of football or technical director, you're not held accountable anymore.
I feel sorry for anybody who wants to get into football and to get their own team because you're never going to be given a chance to run that team the way you want to run it, or to be given the players that you want or need.
How much do player performances have to factor into this decision?
I am staggered that the likes of Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire are still at the club, and playing week in week out when they aren't injured. They are two runts of the litter. Dalot is another - he flatters to deceive all the time and is not up to the required level.
Luke Shaw shouldn't be playing now and Harry Maguire seems to be picking his injuries. You're now forced to be playing youngsters in the back line and Heaven's done incredibly well and thank goodness for him.
Do you play Bruno Fernandes if the club's going to go forward? You don't. Because at the end of the day, Bruno Fernandes played for Manchester United when they were poor, they weren't successful.
People say, they won this and they won that. They didn't win a league, and didn't come close to winning the league, and didn't win a European competition. It's been fantastic for a bad team to have someone like him who can put a cape on and make a difference.
So to move forward, you don't build around someone like that, you move on, and people say what are they going to do without Bruno Fernandes? They said that when Bryan Robson left, they said that when Mark Hughes went. They said that when Roy Keane went and they are all far superior to Bruno Fernandes.
Everybody is playing the same way now. Everything's identical. If Manchester United get it right now and did something positive, they could actually compete to win the league.
It’s not foolhardy to say that. In theory it could be deemed a ridiculous comment. But the league is that poor. When you have Arsenal at the top of it, who are a George Graham team with more money in their pocket and they're playing fearful football. They're scared to go forward in case someone gets in behind them and they might have a shot.
The manager virtually sets his team up for everything they do. Be precise and don't allow a counter attack. So they're boring people to death. They're not showing me anything to say they are going to be impressive title winners.
What do you think Amorim's dismissal means for Kobbie Mainoo now?
He will feel relieved. As long as his brother doesn't get involved, and go on social media with a t-shirt on supporting the decision because that won’t be a good look.
First thing is that he's got to earn the right to be in the team. It's all well and good everyone backing him as a local boy who's come through the ranks but he's got to earn the right to be in there. That's the next stage of it.
He's got to do it on the field. He will be given an opportunity to get back into the team I’m sure and in a new system I imagine initially. The talent is there, and has always been there. He can still learn, and playing next to Casemiro will only help his development as an elite central midfielder.
Another player this could benefit is Sesko, they could give him more support in the final third and get more crosses into the box and utilise his physicality which he has yet to do so far. It’s a physical game and he’s a big lad who can impose himself and I want to see him go and do that. He's now shown enough for me.
We need decent full backs, they are very poor at the moment. I know Darren Fletcher will be in charge on Wednesday against Burnley, and that is a game they shouldn’t be losing. You can’t drop points to Burnley and Scott Parker after those awful performances against Everton, West Ham and Wolves. I just hope Fletcher moves forward and doesn’t go back to the likes of Shaw and Maguire, Manchester United needs to move on and progress.
Who would you like to see be brought in?
It won't happen with these players but I would love to see Roy Keane as part of the coaching staff. They'll be crying to their agents after the first training session. 'He said I was rubbish, 'he told me that my cross was rubbish', 'and then he had a go at me because he showed me how I should block tackle and that frightened me because he showed aggression.' They're all too pampered these days.
But I think there are some serious candidates in the league already. Glasner's definitely one of them for what he did with Frankfurt, and what he's gone and done with Crystal Palace.
He plays a 3-4-3 and plays it very well with so called inferior players to Manchester United. The Crystal Palace players are hungrier because they want to prove a point. He's gone out and he's got players with the right attitudes. Manchester United seem to get players who want to go on Caribbean cruises throughout the season, and they play like that as well. That's the problem with other people like sporting directors going out doing your shopping for you. You can't find out exactly what they're like as a player and whether they suit your style.
I would look at the manager of Bournemouth. He's got big aspirations to go further. He's another one at the moment who must be raging because when he gets someone good and the makings of a really solid team, he has to lose them because of money, look at the players he's seen leave and they still compete with the best teams in the league.
I would look at Unai Emery but I know there are some who thinks he failed at PSG, but who hasn't? He didn't fail at Arsenal either, Arsenal fans are self-entitled people who decided that he didn't match up to Arsene Wenger and everyone else in the media decided to take the mick out of him because he couldn't speak English particularly well. But he's a proper coach - proven European pedigree and gets players working hard.
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