MOLDE WARNING: WE WANT OUR OLE BACK
Norwegian toddler who turned into the baby-faced assassin
MOLDE insist they do not have any provisional agreement in place for manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to stay at Manchester United on a long-term basis and warned United they expect the Norwegian to return in May. Interim boss Solskjaer has enjoyed five consecutive wins since taking over from sacked Jose Mourinho. Molde’s pre-season starts on Monday and they have already allowed Solskjaer to miss the opening months of the campaign. Molde managing director Oystein Neerland said: ‘The deal is until May 12. That is our Plan A and our Plan B. We have no Plan C.’ United are interested in Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino, but Solskjaer’s bright start has put him into the reckoning. Neerland said: ‘We have only spoken with United about this period January to May. Nothing else. I’m staying with this plan.’ Neerland then grinned: ‘I think Ole will be back in May. I think.’
IN the reception area at Molde’s Aker Stadium, the club’s bubbly secretary Heidi Rindaroy is rapidly into her stride.
‘I hear our Ole has been treating Kath, the Manchester United receptionist at Carrington, to some Norwegian chocolates,’ she says. ‘So I better put my request in for some British shortbread.
‘But that is Ole. He treats us all equally. He bought me some excellent red wine as a Christmas present.’
Solskjaer’s charm and affable presence is the overriding narrative at Manchester United since he arrived almost a month ago.
After the snarl of Jose Mourinho, Solskjaer’s smile has lifted the mood and seen United record five wins and score 16 goals in five matches ahead of Sunday’s visit to Tottenham.
In his home country, the adoration of Solskjaer grows. ‘In Norway, there is the Pope and then it’s Ole,’ chuckles former Norway manager Age Hareide. ‘He is our most famous sportsman but this is new ground even for him.’
This is only a six-month agreement but for Solskjaer, 45, it is the opportunity of a lifetime. One friend admits that Solskjaer feared he was finished in English football after a dismal period at Cardiff.
Ole Olsen, Solskjaer’s former boss at first club Clausnengen, says: ‘He would like the job. He texted me after the Huddersfield match, saying, “I’m back home”.
‘You need downs to get up. The ownership in Cardiff was different. At United, he knows the canteen staff, the washing ladies, everyone. It is easier for him. You never know with this boy. As a player, he took the stage in Manchester. He will do the same again.’ SOLSKJAER’S reputation as a player is legendary, but there was a time when his presence raised eyebrows at Old Trafford. United were actually scouting defender Ronny Johnsen during a Norway game against Azerbaijan in 1996 but Solskjaer stole the show by scoring a brilliant volley. When he arrived at Old Trafford to sign his contract, a tour guide looked nonplussed and asked who he was.
Rune Edoy, a local journalist who has known the Solskjaer family for over 20 years, recalls: ‘United presented Ole, Karel Poborsky, Jordi Cruyff and Ronny Johnsen together. Cruyff was the star. All four were presented together. Nobody asked a question to Ole and nobody asked Ferguson about Ole.’
Cruyff remembers the United dressing room being instantly impressed. ‘His shooting was like a computer game. Press the button, turn the joystick and it always goes into the corner. Unbelievable.’ After a goal-laden start, Solskjaer’s finishing touch was compared in Sportsmail’s pages to that of the great Denis Law and in 1999 he inscribed his name into United folklore with that winning goal in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich. Solskjaer scored 126 goals for United and from 2000, took notes on his own training performance and every session run by Ferguson and assistants Steve McClaren and Carlos Queiroz. When Solskjaer informed his manager of his intention to retire in 2007, Ferguson offered him a coaching role within two minutes. For three years, Solskjaer relished working under Ferguson. He coached United’s strikers in the final months of their 2007-08 double-winning campaign and then spent two years as reserve team coach, where he worked with Paul Pogba.
He is a rare example of a man cherished by both Ferguson and Roy Keane. He is said to be one of only of a handful of players who had Keane’s number during the Irishman’s fraught final season at United and the families remain close. IN 2010, Solskjaer returned to Molde as manager. ‘If United are an ocean liner, Molde are a rowing boat,’ quips one friend. Managing director Oystein Neerland is honest. ‘We do not buy players for £100million,’ he says. ‘Molde’s main street — our only street — is 300 metres long with a few shops. The population is 27,000. We have 12,000 at the stadium, so nearly 50 per cent of the population have season tickets. Molde is not in the top 30 cities in Norway.’
Molde is, however, a place of almost impossible beauty. The club’s stadium is set against the banks of Romsadalsfjord and from one local vantage point, 222 mountain peaks are visible.
When Solskjaer arrived in 2010, the club had never won a title and had narrowly escaped relegation.
Former United colleagues Mark Dempsey and Richard Hartis joined Solskjaer and together, they built a mini-United. Players formerly turned up in hoodies and jeans. Solskjaer admired the significance of the United blazer and he worked with Molde veterans to design a badge for a club suit to wear on the way to games.
He delved into the club’s past, inviting Molde old boys for lunch at the canteen every Friday and ensuring they have access to the club’s gym twice a week.
Concerned that players needed to buy sandwiches from the club cafe to refuel, Solskjaer appointed Torbjorg Haugen, the country’s most renowned sports chef, from the Olympic skating team. Players now had breakfast and lunch provided every day.
‘I already know to have his scrambled eggs on toast ready for his breakfast when he returns,’ Haugen grins.
The dressing room layout was remodelled to imitate United’s. Players had individual lockers for the first time. Extra kit-men were
employed. The players’ entrance was changed. They now walk past the gym in the morning, where they see peers arriving earlier to push themselves. A consultant from United flew over to set up the software in hi-tech video analysis suites. Solskjaer even took up Ferguson’s habit of hosting the opposing manager for a glass of wine after games.
It worked. Molde won back-toback titles and a cup competition in three seasons.
Solskjaer speaks of ‘inner justice’ in his dressing room. Late for a meeting? The doors are locked and you are dropped from the next game. Not correctly dressed? Sent home to get the right gear.
Neerland explains: ‘You don’t need to be angry to be respected. When he says no, it means no. He speaks directly and says how it is in the dressing room. There are fine margins between winning 1-0 and losing 1-0.’
* AT UNITED, Anthony Martial discovered Solskjaer’s timekeeping obsession when he was dropped for the home match against Huddersfield after missing a flight back from France.
When the FA Cup draw pitted United at Arsenal this week, Solskjaer told his players: ‘What an opportunity to show how good you are.’
It is a contrast to the Mourinho era, where communication was non-existent and big games daunted rather than excited the manager. Every moment of praise for one player was perceived as a swipe by another. Solskjaer is honest, informing players why they are not playing, but warning them to be ready for a different upcoming game.
One source says: ‘It is very clear he is the manager. He is not pallypally or hanging around with the players in the dressing room. He keeps telling players, “Be yourself. Do what you feel you are best at”.’
It is the same mantra at Molde. In the dressing room, a sign reads: ‘Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.’ Another says: ‘Losers quit when they are tired. Winners quit when they have won.’
The consensus of the United dressing room is clear. The club is breathing again. Some have already spoken of Solskjaer as a long-term option, while more level-headed players still expect the stirring simplicity of Solskjaer’s reign to be short-term and foresee a more experienced appointment such as Sunday’s rival, Mauricio Pochettino.
* THIS week in the Middle East, Solskjaer has pushed his players. His mentality was imbued with relentless drive by dad Oivind, a seven-time Norwegian GrecoRoman wrestling champion.
Jan Trygve Pederson, who played with Solskjaer, recalls: ‘When his dad coached a youth team, sixyear-old Ole would run around like a mascot and help set up sessions.’ There is only one dark secret, as one former teacher says with a smile: ‘I remember him running around in the playground in a Liverpool shirt.’
When in Norway, Solskjaer drives a three-hour round trip each day, along the perilous but stunning Atlantic Ocean Road to return from Molde to his home town of Kristiansund. His children are students at the same Dalabrekka school that he attended.
At the local club, Clausnengen, Solskjaer’s family ties are clear. This is where he began his career, but a photograph of his father as a young footballer in 1959 is also up on the wall. So are pictures of his sister in the handball team. Solskjaer met his wife Silje at Clausnengen where they both played football in the 1980s.
Now Solskjaer is another dad on the touchline, bringing his kids to training and helping out with sessions at Clausnengen’s sister club, Kristiansund, as he rebuilt his coaching career after Cardiff.
Hareide, the current Denmark manager who bought Solskjaer for Molde and sold him to United in 1996, recalls: ‘Everything starts at home. When Ole signed for United, his parents came to me and thanked me. They are the only parents to ever do that for me.
‘I saw he invited Sir Alex to training. They will talk a lot. I remember Ferguson called me before signing Ole. I said, “With his talent and personality, he will serve United for years”.’
Solskjaer’s parents, wife and children travelled to Manchester for United’s win over Bournemouth. With the kids in school and eldest son Noah playing for Kristiansund, Solskjaer is in Manchester alone for now. But back home, pride brims from every quarter.
Jan Trygve Pederson, who now runs Clausnengen, explains: ‘The local newspaper and local bank are setting up a flight to Manchester on May 11 for United v Cardiff — his final game. We will see if it really is his final game.’
Back at Molde, the club’s press officer smiles as he points out that Solskjaer’s name still adorns the door of the managerial office. For how much longer, we shall see.