Manchester United could discover their next manager after defining week

This Tuesday evening could be a defining one in the short-term future of Manchester United, with one eye on Old Trafford and one on the Johan Cruyff Arena and two Champions League ties that are deliciously, delicately poised.

It's been another draining week for the modern United, battered and bruised by the fallout from a wretched derby defeat, but the time for licking their wounds has to be over. The next two games could determine the success — or outright failure — of a season that had promised so much back in September.

Fail to beat Tottenham tonight and a place in the top four will be looking extremely difficult; lose that game and fall below Antonio Conte's side and any hopes United had of getting back into fourth will surely be gone. Then comes that last 16 second leg against Atletico Madrid — the biggest European night at Old Trafford in three years and, if the week goes badly, perhaps the last for a little while as well.

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If the jury is still just about out on Ralf Rangnick's interim tenure at the moment, then the verdicts could be arriving by Wednesday morning. A double disaster for United would be terminal for their season.

Rangnick's hopes of getting the job beyond the end of the campaign are probably gone, but two good results this week might at least prove he remains a capable pair of hands who is beginning to make some progress.

The question is who replaces him and earlier this month football director John Murtough said a "thorough process" to appoint a permanent manager this summer was under way. With the scheduled trip to Liverpool now off, the two-and-a-half-week gap between games from Tuesday to the visit of Leicester City on April 2 is circled as