Back to the Everton Newsfeed

Ralf Rangnick may be the uber-coach chosen to save Man United but he was 'nothing outstanding' as a player, say his old team-mates! Once a skinny 21-year-old at Sussex University, his humble roots saw him struggle

When Paul Ifill sent his dad the Southwick FC team photo from the 1979-80 season this week, there was a name among them that Everton Ifill could remember but couldn't quite place.

One of them was Ralf Rangnick, the godfather of German football management and incoming interim at Manchester United, then only a skinny 21-year-old foreign student at Sussex University.

Was *that* him, the serious-looking young man squatting on the front row, second in from the right, with a thatch of curly hair and arms hanging limply with his elbows in his knees?