AT THE WHEEL
ROBERT J WILSON EXAMINES THE PROSPECTS OF OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER TURNING MANCHESTER UNITED’S FORTUNES AROUND…
But can Ole steer Red Devils?
MAY 3, 2014, Old Trafford and Manchester United are trailing 1-0 to Sunderland. On the half an hour mark, the Swede, Seb Larsson, had taken advantage of some lapse defending in the penalty area to calmly convert a cross from Connor Wickham. Sunderland had taken a massive step in safeguarding their top-flight status.
Meanwhile, Manchester United, languishing in seventh place, just wanted the season out of the way.
As those last few minutes frustratingly ticked away for United, there was no great crescendo of noise vibrating from the terraces nor was there much encouragement coming from the technical area. All was lost. It had been that type of season.
The long-suffering Sunderland supporters were about to celebrate their first victory at Old Trafford since 1968. Ryan Giggs was tasting defeat for the first time as Manchester United manager.
Seven days before, in his first game in temporary charge, Giggs had overseen an emphatic 4-0 win over Norwich City and was roundly cheered as he made his departure down the extended tunnel at the stadium he first graced as a teenage sensation on the left wing.
As we know a week is a long time in football. The performance and result was a personal disaster for Giggs.
The Welshman had been handed the opportunity to audition for the top job after the club had dismissed David Moyes barely nine months into his reign. Moyes was originally seen ‘as the chosen one’ to succeed the vastly successful Sir Alex Ferguson after 26 years of him building an institution of winning – but this was the modern Manchester United and patience isn’t what it used to be. Fifteen defeats from 52 games was enough to see Moyes sacked just those nine months into a six-year contract.
During his roughest spell as manager, Ferguson was spared despite losing 17 matches during the 1989/90 season. The club went on to lift the FA Cup that year and the rest is footballing legend. Those fine margins again.
Three days after losing at home to
Sunderland, United responded by beating Hull City 3-1 before ending the season with a lacklustre 1-1 draw at Southampton. It wasn’t enough to land Giggs the position on a permanent basis and that July the executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodard, appointed Dutchman Louis van Gaal as manager.
Van Gaal’s impressive CV included winning major trophies at Ajax, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and guiding the Netherlands to a World Cup semi-final. Needless to say, his managerial experience told over Giggs, who, as a nice gesture, was appointed his assistant. When push came to shove, Manchester United could not gamble on such a young, inexperienced coach, regardless of him being the most decorated player ever to play for the club.
Fast forward to December 2018 and a
3-1 defeat at Anfield spells the end of Jose Mourinho’s reign as Manchester United manager. Many had seen it coming because of Mourinho’s deteriorating relationship with a number of players and their indifferent results. Losing to Liverpool with a whimper was the last straw. A jubilant Kop sang ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ and they were a day out.
The club quickly reverted to a familiar face. Their very own baby-faced assassin. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who arrived from Molde FK, as a kind of favour at first. It was believed that the likeable Norwegian would reintroduce the philosophy of Fergie. His United would be prepared to attack more and be more gung-ho when things were going against them. Solskjaer, who scored 126 goals in 366 games for Ferguson, knew the history and said the right things. He re-appointed Mike Phelan as a coach and gave the players more freedom to express themselves.
The old traditions would be restored in spades and if he was ever in need of any advice then his mentor was only up the corridor. Perfect. Van Gaal or Mourinho were always going to have too much of an inflated ego to ask for assistance.
The appointment of Solskjaer looked like being a match made in heaven, albeit a temporary one.
In the summer, the club would go out and get a big-name manager, a Conte, a Zidane or, even more intriguingly, Pochettino, if he could be enticed away from Tottenham Hotspur.
No-one could envisage what would happen next.
Solskjaer took the wheel and surged through the gears.
The fixture list was suitably kind and
they embarked on an excellent run of eight straight wins and remained unbeaten for 11. In fact, their only defeat in Solskjaer’s opening 17 matches was at home to PSG in the Champions League and they still managed to overturn a 2-0 deficit in the second leg.
It was the stuff of dreams, a theatre of dreams and it wasn’t long before there was a mass clamouring to have Solkjaer appointed as the new long-term manager. It was completely understandable. The run was remarkable stuff.
At the time, you could hardly blame Woodward for paying a reported £8m in compensation to Molde and handing out a three-year contract to his new 46-yearold manager. Ole was at the wheel and the old United were back… or so it appeared.
Did the underachieving United players want to show the world that their poor form was indeed down to Mourinho? Did they play above themselves to land Solskjaer the job and subsequently ease back into their old habits once he got it? Or are they purely not as good as we all think?
One thing is for sure, Solskjaer has one hell of a job on his hands if they want to be considered serious challengers again for the big prizes. They are trailing the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham in terms of quality and it could be argued that Chelsea and Arsenal have better prospects and better players.
United’s squad is a real mixed bag and so imbalanced that Ashley Young has been first choice full-back under three different managers.
Having had four managers since Ferguson, the turnover of players at Old Trafford has been ridiculously high and they have too many players on inflated wages. Many of their transfers haven’t worked out and it will cost big-time to offload them. Would the most ardent of United fans reject the money back on Paul Pogba if Real Madrid are actually serious in taking him to Spain this summer?
Although talented as he can be as an attacking midfielder, Pogba tends to play on his own conditions and when he feels like it.
The Frenchman is certainly not willing to do the ugly side of the game, such as running back with his man or marking tightly enough at a corner. He has shown flashes of his brilliance, but not nearly enough and certainly not enough to justify being included in the PFA team of the year.
How about a return on investment on Alexis Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku, Eric Bailly, Matteo Darmian, Fred and Nemanja Matic? I bet they would snap their hands off.
The wages have become a problem because the players they would like to keep, such as Ander Herrera are not on the same as the likes of Jesse Lingard, Luke Shaw and Chris Smalling. Herrera, 29, looks to be getting what he is worth from PSG.
Solskjaer could be stuck with a large number of players who will not be anxious to move on because they won’t get such lucrative contracts elsewhere and if they are prepared to transfer then that will again cost.
It is a huge job to undertake for such an inexperienced manager. I’m sure, if you took the name ‘Solskjaer’ out of the equation and all he achieved as a player for Manchester United, a club of that size, expectation and stature would never have contemplated hiring the manager of Molde, who once oversaw Cardiff City’s relegation from the Premier League.
It is hardly the CV to rival that of a Van Gaal or a Mourinho and they are deemed as failed United managers because they could not live up to Ferguson’s achievements.
It may well work out and Solskjaer will surprise a few people by showing a ruthless streak as a manager to rival that of his finishing as a top striker.
He was lethal as a goal poacher and now he will have to prove it as a top level manager at one of the biggest clubs in the world. United seem to think that, unlike Giggs before him, having ‘Ole at the wheel’ will work out in the end. I’m not so sure.