Next Man Utd manager: Fabrizio Romano reveals all on Zidane links as Ashworth holds ‘secret talks’ with former Chelsea boss

The chances of Manchester United moving to be appoint Zinedine Zidane as a potential successor to Erik ten Hag have been played down by Fabrizio Romano, amid claims incoming sporting director Dan Ashworth has his eyes on a former Chelsea boss as his top candidate.

The Dutchman’s second season at the Manchester United helm was not gone as planned with the Red Devils seemingly leaping from one crisis to another. Currently sat sixth in the Premier League and a distant 11 points from the top four, the club are in growing danger of missing out on their first objective of securing a place in next season Champions League.

Having been dumped out of the competition at the first hurdle this season, and with a number of woeful and unwelcome records to boot, pressure has been stacked up on Ten Hag, who has been unable to build on the promise shown during his first season at the helm.

Indeed, TEAMtalk exclusively revealed last week that many at Old Trafford feel Ten Hag is a dead man walking and that a number of senior players have already lost faith in him.

This has news has since been picked up by the Manchester Evening News, who admittedly have to tread more carefully around the subject, and with a number of nationals since following suit as a result.

Roy Keane admits Ten Hag is struggling to inspire Man Utd

In the meantime, fears over the direction United are heading in have been expressed by Roy Keane, who was left underwhelmed by the team’s performance in Sunday’s Manchester derby, that ended in a 3-1 defeat to Man City at the Etihad.

“I can’t be too hard on Manchester United today as City were just brilliant,” Keane said on Sky Sports. “They showed why they’re champions. That’s 11 league losses now for United. That’s one scary stat and what City do is they find out all your shortcomings.

“When you’re out on that pitch and it’s tough, there’s no hiding place. It’s like in boxing. City wore and wore them down. United had to take Jonny [Evans] off after around 60 minutes. They had to change the back four and they were hanging on anyway.

“It still leaves that question mark over where this United team are going. In the last 25 minutes, they couldn’t get anywhere near City, who toyed with them.

“It was men vs boys in the end and they were just hanging in there. Towards the end, you’re thinking it could be four or five. There’s still question marks of this team and unfortunately of the manager.

“The problem is that this team is still all about moments. When you’ve invested all that money and the quality they have, you need a bit more than that.

“It’s more the games we’ve seen over the last few months where they’ve lacked that consistency of performance.

“United have just been digging out results but eventually that catches up with you. The bigger picture is that you need more.”

Zidane ruled out of running to become next Man Utd boss

And with Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand both suggesting a decision on Ten Hag’s future has likely already been made, with the former Ajax boss to fall on his sword at the season’s end, speculation over whom might replace him in the Old Trafford hotseat has begun to gather pace.

To that end, Zidane has been strongly mentioned as a contender in recent days, with one of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s next appointments at Old Trafford – INEOS director Jean-Claude Blanc – having close ties to the French icon.

As a result, it’s claimed Blanc is pushing both Ratcliffe and Ashworth to move for Zidane in the belief he can be persuaded to move to United.

However, trusted source Romano has used his Caught Offside column to provide a key update on those claims and he is adamant that no approach has been made for the 51-year-old.

“We know there will be a lot of movement of managers this summer as there will be jobs opening up at Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, but it seems we’re also getting speculation about some other clubs as well,” Romano began.

“I’m aware there have been more reports about Erik ten Hag’s future at Manchester United, with Zinedine Zidane the latest name mentioned as a candidate for that job. I must stress, though, that I’m not aware of contacts between Zidane and Manchester United so far. Nothing is concrete on that, as of now.

“Let’s see what INEOS decide to do in general in the next months after positive initial discussions with Ten Hag, but Zidane is currently not negotiating with United.”

Secret talks held with Graham Potter

In the meantime, Ashworth is understood to have presented his own ideas to Ratcliffe over whom he sees as the best candidate to succeed Ten Hag in the United dug-out if the axe were to fall.

And per widespread reports, it is believed the incoming new United sporting director has strongly recommended his old colleague Graham Potter, who remains out of work since his axing at Chelsea in April of last year.

Potter may have struggled to get a tune out of Chelsea’s expensively-assembled squad, but he retains enormous respect in the game for what he did at Brighton, with his brand of football felt as strongly suited to United by Ashworth and according to reports.

Furthermore, The Sun claims Potter is ‘the favourite of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his assistant Sir David Brailsford to become Old Trafford boss if the new Red Devils part-owner fires Ten Hag’.

Potter and Ashworth ‘worked closely at Brighton and it is understood the pair got together last weekend’ in a ‘secret meeting’ to discuss the possibility of the former taking on the United hotseat.

The i, meanwhile, claims that United acknowledge they have no chance of luring Zidane to the club, who has strongly made clear in the past of his lack of interest in managing in England.

Furthermore, former Real Madrid teammate Thomas Gravesen recently claimed Zidane would only return to the dug-out for three jobs: Madrid, Marseille or the French national team.

Like The Sun, The i also believes Potter is a name that will figure strongly in any conversations about the next United manager if the axe were to fall on Ten Hag.

Potter departed Chelsea with a win percentage record of 38.71%, having won just 12 of his 31 matches in charge.

Zidane, meanwhile, has an overall record of 62.5% win record across his two spells in charge of Real Madrid.