Manchester United and Zinedine Zidane are locked in talks, with the Frenchman being lined up as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s successor any day now.

That’s the shock claim coming from journalist Pedro Almedia, who remarkably says that reports that have distanced the former Real Madrid coach from the Old Trafford post are all wrong.

“Talks on between Zinedine Zidane and Manchester United,” he wrote on Instagram. “The deal is difficult because the French coach’s preference right now is to coach a national team.”

Zidane, it is thought, is holding out for the France job.

Didier Deschamps has managed Les Bleus since 2012. Zidane’s captain when the pair of them won the World Cup in 1998, Deschamps became the third man to win the tournament as both a player and a manager when France triumphed in 2018.

Amid recent disappointment of Euro 2020, however, Dechamps has come under criticism in his homeland, with discussion about whether he should quit. Zidane is a front-runner for the position.

Zidane has previously only managed Real Madrid, in two spells. During the first, he won the Champions League three times as manager, while in the second – after losing the talismanic Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus – he only won a LaLiga title before stepping down as coach for Carlo Ancelotti to return.

Ronaldo is now at Manchester United and many have questioned whether Zizou’s approach to handling the egos in the Spanish capital may lend itself to the Premier League and United’s current situation. Zidane, however, has apparent reservations.

Solskjaer has struggled to get Ronaldo to gel with his new teammates – despite the Portuguese scoring in every Champions League game so far. The Red Devils have looked a more disjointed outfit since the 36-year-old arrived, while another of Zidane’s former stars, Raphael Varane, has been absent with injury, hampering the northwest outfit at the back.

Most reports are claiming that United are prepared to stick with Solskjaer a little longer.