Manchester United make decision on Mike Phelan’s future

Mike Phelan is no longer a member of Manchester United’s first team coaching staff, but he is still under contract to the organization.

Erik ten Hag’s preseason coaching sessions have gone by without Phelan being present, and the club has acknowledged that Phelan is no longer involved in first-team matters.

United and Phelan are continuing in communication regarding a prospective ambassadorial position. In Thailand for the club’s preseason tour are former players Bryan Robson, Denis Irwin, Andy Cole, and Wes Brown.

Phelan returned to United in December 2018 after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was named interim manager, and in May 2019 he was named assistant manager on a full-time basis.

Phelan was the lone prominent senior staff member who persisted when first-team coaches Michael Carrick, Kieran McKenna, and Martyn Pert left within a month of Solskjaer’s dismissal in November of last year.

Weeks into his appointment as interim manager in December, Ralf Rangnick questioned Phelan’s role at the team and said he was “never on the pitch” for training.

Michael Carrick’s departure necessitated a replacement, thus Chris Armas joined Kieran as one of the two assistant coaches, according to Rangnick at the time. In order to prepare training sessions and discuss video footage with [analyst] Paul Brand, I have the help of the two of them.

Mike Phelan is a member of the staff’s training group but does not observe the training sessions, as he did not when Ole was in charge.

But he never practices with us on the field. He isn’t there, and, as I already stated, he didn’t do it when Ole was in control. Chris won’t take Mike’s place; Michael Carrick would much rather.

Phelan played for United from 1989 to 1994 and joined the team again in 2000 as a coach. He joined Sir Alex Ferguson’s first team staff in 2001, and in 2008, he took Carlos Queiroz’s place as an assistant.