“I KNEW OLE HAD IT In HIM”

While Ole Gunnar Solskjaer becoming a Premier League boss surprised some he played with, others who knew him well always felt he had what it takes.

“I was the captain of the national team when Ole Gunnar joined us,” says former Premier League striker Jan Age Fjortoft. “We played in Northern Ireland, he was a sub and he said to me, ‘Jan, when you are out there I’ll follow your movements and learn from you.’ I thought he was taking the piss, but he wasn’t joking and when he joined Man United, I realised this attitude made him the perfect sub. It has made him a really good manager, too.”

The Norwegian played flight simulation games on the coach with his compatriots, Henning Berg and Ronnie Johnsen, while the rest of the United squad played cards, listened to music or just messed around.

Fjortoft, who said on the record in 2011 that Solskjaer would one-day manage the Red Devils, adds, “When you’re playing, the ones you think are going to be leaders in the future seldom turn out that way. We both played for a tactically orientated Norway team. Ole Gunnar’s influences included Age Hareide, his boss at Molde and now the national coach of Denmark. Egil Olsen, a former manager of Norway, was another, as he made all the players tactically-minded – we had to be, as we were seldom favourites for matches. Of course, he watched training very carefully under Alex Ferguson, too. If you are going to learn from anybody, learn from him.”