David Moyes believes that Ralph Rangnick has the highest reputation in the coaching world.
When he succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, Moyes did the same.
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Louis van Gaal did the same thing when he became manager of Manchester United in 2014. And in 2016 Jose Mourinho did the same.
Unlike Van Gaal or Mourinho, Moyes’ reputation has risen once again, to the extent that his West Ham team visits Old Trafford, seeing United down in the Premier League table, knock them out of the Carabao Cup.
Rangnik with a long standing reputation as a tactical mastermind arrived last month as interim boss.
But he had never previously managed a club of United’s stature – and early performances have been indifferent, having already lost Rangnik’s favorite 4-2-2-2 formation.
And despite his great respect for Rangnik, Moyes has told the German that nothing compares to the intense worldwide scrutiny of United’s management.
Moyes said: “Ralph Rangnick’s reputation, what he’s done in football, the team he’s built, his ideas, his vision for a long time has been great. He’s someone in the world of coaching you’ve always seen.
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“Being manager of Manchester United, however, is completely different from anything else.
“The level of scrutiny. And whatever your thoughts, they may not work at that club. The players available to you… you may not be able to play the way you want to play Huh.
“It’s something that can take a while. So, in a given amount of time, you feel like you can do a better job.
“When you get a big job you are judged immediately. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t do a better job there.
“But Manchester United have had some of the best managers in the world in recent years and it’s a tough job.
“If you lose your job at Manchester United, it makes news around the world. I took over from Sir Alex which was a really tough job.
“I was happy about it but I wish I could have done a little better.
“At the time, though, I was probably as prepared for the job as anyone else was.”
Rangnik made a lot of headlines when Cristiano Ronaldo threw a tantrum after being substituted during Wednesday’s 3-1 win at Brentford.
But when asked whether West Ham would be signing with big arrogance any time soon or whether they had adopted an All Blacks-style ‘no d***heads’ policy, Moyes replied: “I don’t think any manager Wants d*** Hades.
“And I don’t know if you can correlate a d*** head with a big ego — there’s a difference. You can have a big ego and not ad *** head.”
When Ed Woodward stepped down as United chief this month, it was said his biggest regret was not giving Moyes time at Old Trafford.
Scott was sacked less than ten months later – despite having done excellent work at Everton over 11 years.
But Moyes, 58, says with United at the ‘penthouse’, he is determined to take West Ham to the same level.
He said: “When you go to United, it’s like looking out the penthouse window on the roofs, because you’re up.
“And you see it all, because they are at the top of world football.
“There will be a lot of people who would think that United are not there at the moment, but as a football club, they are what they have got.
“I’ve had the opportunity to see how it is and with West Ham, I want the opportunity to get back to that level.
“I have a picture where I want to take West Ham and I’m trying to do it very quickly because I don’t know if I’ll get 11 years like Everton.
“When you’ve seen the top, you see what you can do better.”
Moyes insists he has “no grudges” toward his former employers – but admits it gives him “satisfaction” to stay ahead of today’s opponents.
He said: “Of course it does. There aren’t many managers who go to Old Trafford with a team above them in the Premier League.
“I’m glad we’re in front of him but being ahead of him at the end of the season is what really matters.
“We have to go there with confidence. Our idea is to challenge those top four clubs.
“We don’t necessarily see that we’re quite there yet. We just missed the top four by two points last year and the challenge for the players is, ‘Can we get the extra two points that we need to make it through?’ can see?’.
West Ham suffered a 2-1 home defeat by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side earlier this season – when Moyes sent off Mark Noble to collect a last-gasp penalty, which was saved by David de Gea.
And Moyes admitted: “I didn’t enjoy my company after a few days because I thought I had made a terrible decision and beat myself up about it.
“That decision we got was wrong because it didn’t quite work out – but I still think my reasons for doing it were right.”
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