HOW LONG DOES OLE REALLY HAVE AT THE WHEEL?

It has been more than 30 years since Manchester United supporters approached a new campaign consumed with this much gloom and pessimism.

This is largely due to the nagging fear many harbour that the club acted too rashly in hiring Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as manager. The lusty chants of ‘Ole’s at the wheel’ that reverberated around the grounds during his caretaker reign have faded, and been replaced by the concern that United might be saddled with a boss fatally out of his depth.

After arriving last December, the Norwegian kicked off his Old Trafford tenure by introducing a far more attacking style and winning 14 of his first 17 games. The plan had been to wait until the end of the season before making a decision, but the United board felt Solskjaer had earned the job with this run of form and appointed him at the end of March.

Although some onlookers rejoiced, this would soon reveal itself to be a dreadful error, stripping the club of the momentum they had built up and triggering an unexpected implosion in which Solskjaer presided over a dire record of two wins and eight defeats from the last 12 fixtures. It is hard to avoid the evidence that since he was appointed as permanent manager, the former United striker has failed to draw a single convincing performance from his players.

In the spring, the club had the opportunity to grasp a Champions League place, but by May they couldn’t even secure wins over already-relegated Huddersfield and Cardiff, and Solskjaer appeared powerless to do anything about it.

The uncomfortable truth is that had United waited until the end of the campaign, it is highly likely that Solskjaer would now be back in Norway and someone else would be preparing to take United into the new season – their seventh since the last league title.

And so the Red Devils find themselves in the curious position of needing a significant squad overhaul, but under a coach with no experience of doing anything like that in the past.

From the boardroom to the messageboards, every United supporter must cling to the hope that Solskjaer can rediscover the form he produced after succeeding Jose Mourinho in December, rather than the abject surrender witnessed in the final two months of last term. If United’s struggles continue into this season, Solskjaer runs the real risk of being forcibly removed from behind that wheel before Christmas.