The last time Ralf Rangnick took a seat at Old Trafford in an official coaching capacity, he watched Manchester United flex their muscles, show off the depth of their resources and sweep the opposition aside.
Rangnick could only look on in awe. It was a Champions League semi-final, yet United rested a clutch of senior players, so confident were they of commanding Rangnick’s Schalke.
That was a little over a decade ago, Alex Ferguson was leading United to the penultimate Premier League title of his long reign and so sure was he that Schalke, 2-0 down from the first leg, would test his team less than Chelsea, domestic title rivals whom United faced four days later, that Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Ryan Giggs were on the bench. Rio Ferdinand, Park Ji-sung, and Wayne Rooney had been left out altogether.
So had Michael Carrick, a star performer in the first leg. As Carrick would later recall, the wholesale changes provoked some alarm in the dressing-room. “When we were alone, the players were like, ‘What the hell is the Boss doing?,’ wrote Carrick in his autobiography. “Sir Alex must be the only manager in history to rest players for a Champions League semi-final.
“It was moments like this,” Carrick then reflected, “when I admired the Boss even more because he was just a born risk-taker.”
Ferguson’s risk paid off. Rangnick’s Schalke did manage a goal, but conceded four, to go out 6-1 on aggregate. Senior United players returned that weekend to inflict a decisive defeat on title rivals Chelsea.
As in those two legs of May 2011, Carrick will have one match - against Arsenal - to make an impression on the watching Rangnick, before stepping back from centre stage. The German, newly appointed as interim United manager, hopes to have formally completed his visa prerequisites in time for the weekend game against Crystal Palace, bringing an end to the two-week period of Carrick’s caretaker role following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
To a degree, Carrick is auditioning for a future that Rangnick, who will manage United at least until June and then remain as a consultant, may have a say in designing. So far, the 63-year-old German has seen promise. Carrick’s first game in charge, with little prior notice, was the victory at Villarreal that secured United’s place in the next round of the Champions League. He followed up with Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Chelsea, a point stealthily gained.
Rangnick has spent far more time in grandstands than on touchlines in the decade since he guided Schalke to the last four of the European Cup. Expect him to betray few signs of coaching rustiness - his last head-coach job, at RB Leipzig, finished in mid-2019 - when he takes his first United session. Rangnick has clear ideas, no lack of belief in his methods and, since he was headhunted by United from his executive position at Lokomotiv Moscow, has been rigorous about his homework. Not for nothing is he known in Germany as "The Professor".
Being back at Old Trafford, 10 years on from that Champions League semi-final, cannot help but resonate for him. He will on Thursday night watch duels between old and young: Arsenal are well down the road to a future built around fledgling talents while Carrick continues to balance the merits of a 36-year-old superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, against the 20-somethings, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood.
When Rangnick brought Schalke to Manchester, he had one young star, goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, and an illustrious veteran, Spain’s Raul, then 33, up front. While his coaching had taken an otherwise patchwork squad much further in Europe than had been forecast, they were no heavyweights. His Schalke ended up as the 14th best team in that season’s Bundesliga.
They would be comfortably bulldozed out of Europe by a United whose headliners in that second leg tell the story of how second-string Ferguson’s chosen side had been. Darron Gibson set up one goal and scored another; the Brazilian Anderson scored his only brace for the club.
Paul Scholes, who was the same age, 36, as Ronaldo is now, ran the midfield. Dimitar Berbatov, sometimes criticised, as Ronaldo is now, for not chasing and harrying off the ball, played at centre-forward.
By the time Berbatov set up the fourth goal that evening, United fans, distracted, deprived of suspense, were singing songs about old, departed playing heroes. Solskjaer’s name featured. There will be recognition for him on Thursday, too, at the first home game since he was sacked as manager.
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Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
Profile of RentSher
Started: October 2015 in India, November 2016 in UAE
Founders: Harsh Dhand; Vaibhav and Purvashi Doshi
Based: Bangalore, India and Dubai, UAE
Sector: Online rental marketplace
Size: 40 employees
Investment: $2 million
EA Sports FC 26
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3/5
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
RESULT
Liverpool 4 Southampton 0
Jota (2', 32')
Thiago (37')
Van Dijk (52')
Man of the match: Diogo Jota (Liverpool)
