Marseille have confirmed the departure of manager Roberto De Zerbi, a development that instantly reshapes the managerial landscape for Manchester United. De Zerbi has been a long-term target for those running the club after earning admirers across the Premier League during his time at the Amex Stadium.<\/p>\n
United\u2019s interest first moved beyond gossip during the end-of-season review in the summer of 2024. Club officials considered the future of Erik ten Hag and spoke directly with De Zerbi, even discussing the terms of a potential contract, before ultimately persisting with the Dutchman. De Zerbi joined Marseille soon after and, in his debut season, lifted Marseille from eighth to second in Ligue 1.<\/p>\n
That rise kept him on United\u2019s radar and attracted interest elsewhere. Tottenham Hotspur spoke with the Italian as recently as the summer of 2025. Links resurfaced in January after Ruben Amorim\u2019s Old Trafford exit and De Zerbi reiterated his regard for English football. \u201cThe Premier League is absolutely the best league in the world, and I have great memories of when I worked in Brighton ,\u201d he admitted. \u201cIt was an amazing experience for me, and I feel the league is getting better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n
With De Zerbi now available, United may find it considerably easier to strike a deal. Spurs are themselves at a crossroads over the future of Thomas Frank and could revisit the Italian they spoke to before hiring the Dane.<\/p>\n
United have also taken steps to avoid rush appointments. The club\u2019s appointment of Michael Carrick as interim boss provides time to weigh options, which club officials appear to be doing. De Zerbi is an obvious candidate, but other names remain under consideration. Oliver Glasner will leave Crystal Palace this summer, Andoni Iraola of Bournemouth is expected to step up, and there have been calls for United to try and lure Unai Emery away from Aston Villa.<\/p>\n
Beyond the domestic market, Mauricio Pochettino and Thomas Tuchel will both be out of contract after the World Cup, and Julian Nagelsmann\u2019s Germany contract runs until 2028 though an early approach could be explored. For United, De Zerbi\u2019s exit from Marseille has simplified one facet of a wider search.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
De Zerbi’s Marseille exit gives Manchester United a clear opening in the summer manager search ahead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1348,1163],"tags":[1087,1461],"class_list":["post-6790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united-news","category-transfers","tag-coaching-change","tag-manager-appointments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}