In public, Rangnick sometimes came across as a little dour. But he was very different as a coach, Lars Kornetka recalls. “People relate to him because he has empathy. He’s a real father figure, he feels responsible for the players he coaches and will listen to their problems. Guys like Ba or Obasi are still regularly in touch with him years later because they value him so highly. You speak to someone like Gerald Asamoah (the former Schalke player) and he’ll tell you that Ralf is still there for him, happy to help out. One of the toughest things for him was to disappoint players who were good guys but not quite good enough on the pitch.”
What he couldn’t do, however, is compromise on his convictions. Hoffenheim’s flight of fancy hadn’t lasted after striker Vedad Ibisevic tore his anterior cruciate ligament but they still finished a respectable seventh. Rangnick had tasted blood. Hopp, though, wanted to consolidate. He sold Luiz Gustavo to Bayern Munich for €20 million behind his manager’s back. Rangnick resigned out of principle.
On September 22, 2011, his next adventure was all over. “After long and careful deliberations, I’ve decided that I need a break,” read the surprising statement. “It’s been a tough decision. But my energy levels are not sufficient enough to be successful.”
Eight months into his second spell with Schalke, a golden time that had brought his first major trophy, the DFB-Pokal, adulation from the crowd and progress to the semi-finals of the Champions League (where they were beaten by the last great Manchester United side), Rangnick was too physically and mentally exhausted to carry on. “Burnout syndrome,” was the clinical diagnosis. Weakened by glandular fever and an unhealthy long-hour lifestyle and diet, he couldn’t go on.
Many thought he was done with coaching when he accepted Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz’s offer to do what he had done at Hoffenheim on a much more grandiose scale involving multiple football clubs. But Rangnick wasn’t done. When Leipzig needed a coach to step in at the beginning of 2015-16, Rangnick’s “best man for the job” policy led him to appoint… himself. He duly won promotion to the Bundesliga with Leipzig and stepped aside, content with overseeing the further development of the club, its players, and
an increasing number of coaches who graduated from the Rangnick coaching university to get high-level jobs elsewhere.
Three years later, Rangnick repeated the trick, stepping into the breach for one campaign as Julian Nagelsmann was unable to extricate himself from Hoffenheim. He finished third and made it into the DFB-Pokal final, but lost 3-0 against Bayern.
Leipzig was his masterpiece, the realisation of his footballing ideas on the pitch and far beyond. But those who know him well say that there was a not-so-well hidden desire to go back onto the bench once more, and take on some of the managers he had partially inspired or directly fostered. Talks with
Everton faltered when the Goodison Park hierarchy opted for Carlo Ancelotti. AC Milan came close but negotiations stalled when Stefano Pioli started winning.
Chelsea offered him a four-month interim role before Thomas Tuchel’s appointment but Rangnick felt the time was too short to make a real impact. Others weren’t quite sure whether they wanted Rangnick as a coach or a sporting director.
As one of a handful of people who had done well in both roles, he was often perceived as overqualified and too scary a proposition for club officials in cushy roles. The German FA, too, preferred to go with Hansi Flick, a long-time FA employee, as Low’s successor rather than hand the keys to Rangnick, who might have turned over every stone in his relentless search for optimisation potential.
A figure close to Rangnick thinks the Manchester United job, another interim role, has come at a good time: “I wouldn’t say he’s become more mellow because he’s still incredibly driven, but he’s learned to delegate and trust other people.” The temporary nature of his employment and his clear focus on the first team’s fortunes will not create any friction upstairs, and at 63, Rangnick is experienced enough to handle big egos in the dressing room and help young players. With a bit of detailed coaching,
Jadon Sancho should be a very different proposition in the next few months.
But most importantly, the godfather of the German coaching school will bring with him a vision of a United team playing organised, exciting, high-energy football. “To develop, educate and coach, you need to be sure what kind of football you need to play,” Rangnick told an audience of managers at The Coaches’ Voice conference in London in September. “That’s what all the top coaches in Europe have in common. They know what their football looks like, they have a video of the perfect game in their heads. The job is to transform that idea of football into the heads, hearts, brains and veins of the players. That’s motivation: the transfer of belief.”
Let the download begin.
