‘Baby-faced assassin’ returns to Old Trafford
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer will be manager of Manchester United when Town visit Old Trafford on Boxing Day.
The Norwegian has been installed as the club’s new caretaker manager following the sacking of Jose Mourinho on Tuesday.
Solskjaer, whose Champions League final winner sealed United’s famous treble in 1999, will take the reins until the end of the season as the club undergoes a restructuring process and searches for a new full-time manager.
The intention is for the fans’ favourite to return to Molde in May, with the Norwegian club’s chief executive Oystein Neerland saying they are happy to ‘lend’ their manager to United.
“Manchester United is in my heart and it’s brilliant to be coming back in this role,” said Solskjaer.
“I’m really looking forward to working with the very talented squad we have, the staff and everyone at the club.”
Sir Alex Ferguson’s former right-hand man, Mike Phelan, who managed Hull in the Premier League two years ago, joins Solskjaer as first-team coach.
The pair link-up at United with Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna, who took training yesterday ahead of the caretaker manager’s first full day in the hotseat today.
Solskjaer is expected to speak to the media for the first time tomorrow, with a frantic few days peaking on Saturday evening at Cardiff as his first match pits him against the only other Premier League club he has coached.
Things did not go to plan in the Welsh capital, having overseen relegation from the top flight in 2014 and a poor start to life in the Championship.
Solskjaer left claiming a ‘difference in philosophy’ with owner Vincent Tan after just eight-and-a-half months. THERE are few bigger legends in the history of Southampton Football Club than Ted Bates.
Over a period of 66 years, Bates was player, manager, director and president of the Saints.
And there is a statue of him outside the club’s St Mary’s ground, commemorating the service of a BBC SPORT pundit Garth Crooks has questioned whether Jamaal Lascelles should have been sent off at the weekend for his high tackle on Laurent Depoitre.
The Newcastle United skipper took out the Belgian forward in the first half at the John Smith’s Stadium on