Ralf Rangnick speaks out on Thomas Tuchel Manchester United speculation

Ralf Rangnick has dismissed speculation linking Thomas Tuchel with Manchester United.

Sanctions imposed by the UK government against the Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich have left the Champions League winners in limbo as Chelsea are unable to negotiate contracts with current players or sign players from other clubs.

Pundit Jamie Carragher wrote on Thursday United should attempt to prise Tuchel from Chelsea, where he has also guided them to victory in the Club World Cup, as well as FA Cup and League Cup finals. Tuchel was sacked by Paris Saint-Germain in December 2020 but United did not approach him before he replaced Frank Lampard at Chelsea a month later.

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Tuchel is an acolyte of Rangnick's, having played under his fellow German at Ulm before Rangnick appointed him as the youth coach at Stuttgart in 2000. United have started the process of identifying their next permanent manager but Rangnick downplayed the possibility of them poaching Tuchel.

"It doesn’t make sense at all to even think or speculate about that," Rangnick said. "Yes, Thomas Tuchel is a top manager. Yes, I know him well. Yes, he was a player of mine in Ulm. Yes, he took his first job as a football coach in Stuttgart when I was the head coach there.

"We all know that but he is the manager of Chelsea right now, they’re third, they’re still in the Champions League and only because there are issues now around the ownership of this club, to speculate about maybe him being a candidate for the manager’s here in the summer doesn’t make sense to do that."

United passed on Tottenham coach Antonio Conte in late October when the Italian was interested in replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Sources said United were 'not