There was some big news from Liverpool’s rivals on Saturday, as Manchester United got themselves a new chief executive.
As it turns out, it was a quite interesting appointment, too. As per manunited.com, the Red Devils have hired Omar Berrada direct from Manchester City. Berrada had been working as City’s chief football operations officer but has jumped ship to their city rivals. Intriguing.
In the hours since his appointment, Berrada has seen a few old gems resurface from his X account.
And judging by one of his tweets about Liverpool, United’s new man is not a particularly astute reader of the game.
Sent on May 16th 2012, Berrada weighed in on who should succeed the recently sacked Kenny Dalglish as the new Liverpool manager.
“Liverpool sacks Dalglish,” muses the executive. “For me, Guardiola would be their ideal manager but he said he wants to take a year off.” You don’t say, Omar?
Berrada suggests Guardiola
To suggest that Liverpool should have simply hired Pep Guardiola in 2012 is quite simply hilarious. What an original idea.
The Reds had just come off the back of an eighth-placed finish in the Premier League. Sure, they won the League Cup and made it to the FA Cup final, but they were far, far from the club they once were, and are again today.
Dalglish often had Charlie Adam and Jay Spearing on the pitch at the same time. Andy Carroll up ahead of them. With respect to those players, Guardiola would have taken one look at the squad and laughed.
There was of course some top talent sprinkled within that group, too.
Steven Gerrard was still there and not long into his thirties. Meanwhile, Luis Suarez had just been signed and a very young Raheem Sterling was coming onto the scene. Jordan Henderson was around and Pepe Reina as well.
But by and large, this was not a group of players you’d imagine Guardiola would have been interested in, Liverpool or not.
The Spaniard may not have just had the best season of his career at Barcelona, but he was still the most revered coach around. Pep did indeed take a year’s sabbatical before returning to deliver three league titles in a row at Bayern Munich.
Liverpool, having ignored Man United’s new man online, hired Brendan Rodgers instead.
That they gave the job to the man who had been coaching Swansea, not Barcelona, the year before tells you everything you need to know about Berrada’s suggestion. If he’s the man making the calls at United, we’ve got nothing to worry about…
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