I attended Ralf Rangnick's press conferences and saw his honesty scare Manchester United staff

England were 86 seconds away from an inquest comparable with the nadir of Iceland eight years ago until Jude Bellingham struck a pose he could trademark.

In 2016, Roy Hodgson knew the game was up before he returned to the dressing room in Nice. The Football Association's technical director quickly identified a leftfield candidate to modernise the England national team.

He was interviewed by a three-man panel. It went well. But it was a two-horse race. The technical director was outvoted two-to-one. David Gill and Martin Glenn chose Sam Allardyce.

The candidate was Ralf Rangnick. The FA technical director was Dan Ashworth. Ashworth now occupies a role at Manchester United the club ought to have offered to Rangnick five years ago.

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In the end, Ed Woodward turned to someone right on his doorstep in John Murtough. Woodward's rationale was that Rangnick was solely a recruitment specialist.

Then Murtough headhunted Rangnick to take interim charge of United in December 2021. Woodward, serving out his notice, may have felt vindicated.

Rangnick jarred with the compliant and complacent culture at United. Of all the post-Ferguson managers, only Jose Mourinho has chaired press conferences with greater box office appeal than Rangnick.

There has been some revisionism of Rangnick's United tenure during the European Championship. His Austria side have been one of the most crowdpleasing in Germany and topped their group ahead of a methodical France and the disjointed Dutch.

Some managers are suited to international competition (Gareth Southgate was another Ashworth recommendation). Rangnick has found his niche with Austria and was in demand when Bayern Munich recently came calling. His contract with Austria has now been automatically extended until 2026.

Upon his arrival at United, Rangnick had managed 81 games in the past decade. He should have had control of transfers rather than tactics.

Rangnick's standout achievement as a coach was - and still is - winning the German Cup with Schalke in 2011. While he may have pioneered Gegenpressing and the 'double six', United suffered a triple four - four-goal humblings at Manchester City, Liverpool and Brighton - under the German.

Rangnick was an expert troubleshooter. He recommended ten signings and there have been ten permanent additions in Erik ten Hag's first two summers. After Rangnick's "open heart surgery" diagnosis in April 2022, Ten Hag, appointed earlier that week, was photoshopped as a surgeon with the headline 'EMERGENCY WARD TEN' by the Daily Mirror.

But it was before Rangnick's penultimate match that he unnerved United staff. During the embargoed section of his pre-match press conference ahead of the trek to Brighton, Rangnick brazenly questioned the recruitment department's failure to identify a forward in the January transfer window.

Anthony Martial had headed to Sevilla on loan on January 26 and Mason Greenwood was indefinitely suspended on January 30. The 35-year-old Edinson Cavani, the 37-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Elanga were the available forwards. Greenwood, scorer of six goals, outscored all bar Ronaldo.

The winter window closed at 11pm on January 31, leaving United with the best part of 48 hours to offset the unavailable Greenwood with an 11th-hour replacement. "In the first couple of months, at least until the end of January, we were improving," Rangnick explained, "we were conceding fewer goals, we had a points average of 2.1 after the West Ham game.

"But then in that international break we lost, including Edinson Cavani, three players - long-term players - we lost three strikers and we had problems to score goals and find our balance, this is what happened.

"Maybe - I still believe - we should have tried, in those 48 hours, and I think the board meanwhile sees it the same way - they agreed with me - but they also spoke to the scouting department at the time, maybe we should have signed, tried to sign, a player in those 48 hours once we knew Mason wouldn't be available, once we knew that Anthony Martial had already left on loan.

"We were at least already aware Edinson Cavani might not be available for eight out of 10 games but, as I said, we didn't. Maybe I should have pushed even more in order to get this additional striker. But, as I said, we didn't."

So why didn't United sign a forward?

"Because the answer at the time was no, there is no player on the market who would really help us."

Could you not see one on the market?

"There were a few! [Luis] Diaz, who is now at Liverpool, [Julian] Alvarez, who will be at Manchester City in the summer, [Dusan] Vlahovic, who at the time was still with Fiorentina. So those are just three of them that come across my mind now." Rangnick forgot to mention Dejan Kulusevski, integral to Tottenham's fourth-place finish.

Was it a question of finances? Money?

"The answer was no, that was it."

Did you push for one?

"I came back after the fourth day [off in January]. We had four days off at the time. I think it was a Sunday. I was informed about the issues around Mason Greenwood and obviously Anthony Martial had already left, and then I was aware that within four days we had some strikers missing and that it might make sense [to buy]. We were still in three competitions: the FA Cup, the Champions League, at the time we were fourth in the league."

Did you ask the board to sign a striker and they said "no"?

"I spoke to the board and told them, ‘shouldn’t we at least speak and analyse and find if we can at least get a player, on loan or a permanent deal?' In the end, the answer was no."

Did they give an answer?

"Maybe they didn’t want to do any winter [business]. It doesn’t matter, the answer was no. I spoke to the board."

After Rangnick had left the room, two members of the United communications staff arrived to put out a fire the size of the Tower Inferno. They only had buckets.

Cavani's lay-offs were unforeseeable, they claimed. It was pointed out Cavani's tendency to declare himself unavailable for games was an issue under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Cavani had stayed in Uruguay for two extra days rather than participate in United's first match back after the January internationals against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup fourth round on February 4. United lost 9-8 in a penalty shootout.

The Uruguayan had missed every United game after international duty, having had eight weeks off after their final Copa America match in July 2021. At the time of Rangnick's diatribe, Cavani had been available for 18 of United's 47 matches that season. He was out injured between November 2 and December 27, sidelined again between February 8 and March 12 and had just returned from a seven-week lay-off.

A senior United player likened Rangnick's press conferences to unpinning a grenade and dropping it. The dressing room was drained of confidence partly because Rangnick had advised ten new signings.

In Brighton's Amex Stadium press room, a United press officer sidled over before kick-off and requested that this correspondent essentially ask Rangnick to clarify his comments. United were battered 4-0 in a performance so abhorrent their supporters chanted, "You're not fit to wear the shirt".

Rangnick still crowbarred in a reference to the striker shortage and he was on message at his final gathering at Carrington two weeks later. Darren Fletcher and Harry Maguire made an appearance for the send-offs of Steve Bates, stepping down as the chief football writer of the Sunday People, and United's head of football communications Karen Shotbolt.

Whilst delivering Ms Shotbolt's leaving speech, The Sun's Neil Custis also expressed gratitude to Rangnick. "Just while you're here, Ralf, we don't get the chance nowadays to say goodbye to managers any more - they tend to be gone before we have a chance.

"But we'd just like to thank you for the way you've dealt with us, how straight you've been, I know it's not gone as well as you'd have liked but you've never ducked a question and you've always said it how it is.

"I think that's gone down well not just with us, but with fans. I'm not sure how well it's gone in Tampa, but it's gone down well with fans."

Ten Hag officially took over two days later and was asked about Rangnick's two-year role as a consultant. "That is on the club," he stressed.

We sensed Rangnick would not last long. He did not last a week. Rangnick's departure was announced six days later, his consultancy contract shredded before it had become active.

Ashworth is an admirer, though.