Ten things you need to know about Manchester United’s Marc Skinner

1) The 40-year-old began his working life as a teacher at Solihull College and joined Birmingham initially on a part-time basis in 2006. In the course of a 10-year footballing apprenticeship, Skinner gained the Uefa A licence and served, variously, as Birmingham’s technical director, reserve-team coach and goalkeeping coach before finally becoming manager in 2016. During his time in charge he led the Blues to seventh and fifth-placed league finishes and an FA Cup final.

2) His partner is the former England defender Laura Bassett. The pair met when they shared under-14 coaching duties at Birmingham; their daughter, Saede, was born in December 2018. In the spring of 2017, Bassett was preparing to represent the Lionesses in the European Championship in the Netherlands when her club, Notts County, folded. It was suggested that she join Birmingham but Skinner had become manager there the previous year and she did not want to complicate his life by returning to a former team. “Marc’s at the start of a new project and, as much as I’d love to go back, it wouldn’t be right,” said Bassett. “I’d just be giving him more problems. Also, I have to live with him so, if I want to shout at him about his untidiness at home, I don’t want to be taking that to work! It wouldn’t be healthy.”

3) Skinner does not believe managers should embark on relationships with their players. “It’s ethics,” he says. “I’m not here to judge anyone else but, from my perspective, and I was a teacher before I became a coach, I don’t think it should happen. In football, lines become blurred. How do you keep your objectivity if you attach an emotional state to a manager-coach relationship? But I know these relationships have happened in the past – and they still