sport news A shadow of his rivals, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was never the right man for ...

sport news A shadow of his rivals, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was never the right man for ...
sport news A shadow of his rivals, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was never the right man for ...

The publishers of an excellent biography about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s path to the Manchester United hot-seat settled on a title of The Red Apprentice.

It felt apt. Accurate too. It is also a damning indictment of Solskjaer’s three-year reign at Old Trafford. No Manchester United manager should be learning on the job. That isn’t Solskjaer’s fault, of course. He answered the call from his old club when United sacked Jose Mourinho in December 2018, initially as a caretaker, and who could blame him?

‘I suppose it was like coming in on loan,’ Solskjaer wrote candidly earlier this year in another book on leadership. ‘It wasn’t like, “come in and change the club and put your stamp on it”. It was “come in, you know the club, you know the expectations, make them smile, play attacking football and give youth a chance”.’ 

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was always out of his depth as the manager of Manchester United

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was always out of his depth as the manager of Manchester United

So there was never a long-term plan for Solskjaer. It wasn’t meant to be this way. He arrived with a mediocre c.v. showing success at Molde and failure at Cardiff City, qualifications that wouldn’t normally qualify a manager for the United job. He lasted longer than anyone expected, including the man himself.

But the brutal reality for a thoroughly likeable and decent human being is that he was out of his depth from the start.

Circumstances and a misplaced sense of nostalgia conspired to mask that fact. United gave Solskjaer a new contract when they were high on a Champions League win in Paris the following March and another one this summer. 

To his credit Solskjaer leaves behind a better squad at United to the one that he inherited

To his credit Solskjaer leaves behind a better squad at United to the one that he inherited

The stop-gap had become a spiritual leader; responsible for putting smiles on faces, resetting cultures and restoring DNA post-Mourinho. To that end, Solskjaer deserves great credit.

He also leaves behind a better squad than he inherited, helped of course by more than £400million spent on new signings.

But when it came to giving United the kind of leadership and coaching acumen that Manchester City and Liverpool are blessed with in Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, it always felt as though Solskjaer was a pale imitation.

Would Guardiola and Klopp get more out of this United squad? Without a doubt. Would they walk into another top job tomorrow? Of course. Solskjaer? Unlikely.

It is highly likely that Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola would get more out of United's players

It is highly likely that Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola would get more out of United's players

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