Time to ditch ‘Fergie Way’ – it’s obsolete...
IF you thought the return of the HBO series Succession was the most compelling drama around then you did not reckon on United’s own succession plan.
The club has become a hive of briefing and counter-briefing concerning managers in the post-Ferguson era and knives have already been drawn for the back-stabbing.
Each of the last three managerial dismissals has been handled in a cack-handed or callous manner, whether it was in or out of United’s control. Silence is golden was the Monday mantra and it created obfuscation. The only two 5-0 away victories in the history of matches between Liverpool and United came in the year after seismic world events – the end of the Second World War and the Covid-19 pandemic. Sunday’s result was so extraordinary a (dreaded) vote of confidence via a statement would have been forgivable.
Not to the majority aghast that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is still in situ. The only reason for the hold-up would be United have been caught off guard and do not even have a succession plan.
Don’t be surprised. Richard Arnold, the managing director, gushed about the ‘phenomenal success (Solskjaer) is bringing’ in March and Ed Woodward claimed he was ‘more confident than ever’ of success. That is without considering the three-year contract that was agreed in between. The succession plan is more botched than Logan Roy’s.
Solskjaer flew to Manchester in October of 2018 and verbally agreed to replace Jose Mourinho when he cleared his desk at Carrington two months later. Molde agreed a new contract with Solskjaer in early December to ensure a ‘loan’ fee.
That is a long goodbye United cannot afford. However bad it became under Mourinho – and the parallels with a demoralising defeat to Liverpool on a Sunday are unmistakable – it was not this bad. The atmosphere was more fraught but United secured comeback wins over Newcastle and Juventus in Mourinho’s final months and his last home match was an emphatic 4-1 stroll against Fulham.
The timing of Sir Alex Ferguson and Martin Edwards’s visit to United’s training complex yesterday was ill-judged. Even nostalgic Reds fans cannot abide by Ferguson’s borderline interference – or Solskjaer’s subservience. On the eve of the Liverpool game, Solskjaer plugged Ferguson’s documentary, having attended its premiere.
Since Ferguson retired in 2013, there have been documentaries on Ferguson, the Class of ‘92 and Sir Matt Busby. Eric Cantona cowrote another this year that Solskjaer appeared in. Every year, it is the same history lesson and a different project.
Solskjaer’s authority – what little there is left of it – was further eroded by Ferguson’s mere presence at Carrington. Hosting a visit from the greatest ever manager and the chairman who refused to sack him in that 1989-90 winter of discontent encapsulates much that is wrong with United, a club stuck in the past. The game has changed and United need to change with it. The mythical ‘United way’ or the ‘Fergie way’ are obsolete. United’s identity crisis is all the more severe for their obsession with past glories. They pride themselves on counterattacking football and comebacks to rival Lazarus when that approach is unsustainable. They have been left behind at home and abroad. The manager, the assistant manager, the first-team coach, and the technical director are all former pupils of Ferguson. Ferguson had Mick Clegg as his strength and conditioning coach and Solskjaer has Michael Clegg, his son. The old boys’ club culture at Liverpool was partly why they went 30 years without a title.
United’s identity crisis is all the more severe for their obsession with past glories Samuel Luckhurst