Antonio Conte was reportedly ready to take the Manchester United job, and would even have considered the offer from the Red Devils despite it being the middle of the season.
This is according to The Athletic, who note that Conte usually prefers to start a new job in the summer, which has the benefit of pre-season preparations and the transfer market before the competitive football gets going.
Still, Conte would have broken from that tradition for Man Utd, only he’s now doing it for Tottenham instead, as another report from The Athletic note that he feels Ole Gunnar Solskjaer remains safe at Old Trafford.
Several United fans were already expressing their dismay at Conte’s next move yesterday, and it does seem like this has the potential to come back and haunt them.
Solskjaer has done some good work in his time with MUFC, but it still seems pretty clear that the inexperienced Norwegian tactician is a long way off being in the same league as the likes of Conte, or other leading Premier League managers like Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel.
United have made a host of poor managerial appointments since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, and it looks like Conte could join the list of top bosses they could’ve hired instead.