It’s just magic for Ole to survive bad spells THEY SAID IT
OLE GUNNAR Solskjaer is grateful to the Manchester United hierarchy for sticking with him through the kind of ‘bad spells’ that ended up costing Frank Lampard his job at Chelsea.
There have been periods of poor form and intense pressure since the Norwegian succeeded Jose Mourinho, initially on a temporary basis, in December 2018.
But the Old Trafford giants kept faith in the 1999 Treble-winning hero and have been rewarded with improving performances, with United heading into the midweek fixtures top of the Premier League.
They finished third in Solskjaer’s first full season after goal difference saw them edge ahead of Chelsea, who sacked alltime top scorer Lampard on Monday following a rocky recent run.
‘It’s not really for me to comment too much on that one,’ Solskjaer said. ‘One thing I know for sure is that Frank doesn’t want any of us to feel sorry for him.
‘I know his character and mentality and I’m sure he’ll bounce back and have a very
‘If I was a neutral I would expect it to be a comfortable night for Man Utd. We have got to make it as uncomfortable as possible for them.’ Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder claims his struggling team have nothing to lose when they visit Manchester United tonight
good managerial career. It’s the first dip of form they really had under Frank, so a little bit surprised, but it’s not my job to comment on Chelsea.’
But there are clear similarities given the way Solskjaer and Lampard returned to the clubs they shone for as players, albeit United have shown far more patience when the chips were down.
‘Well, I don’t know,’ he said when asked if sometimes patience was a virtue.
‘Of course I’ve had good backing from the club and the leadership have been very steady, which I feel very grateful for because we’ve been through two or three bad spells of form, of course.’
Solskjaer was the bookmakers’ favourite to be the next manager to leave just a matter of weeks ago, yet tonight he is preparing his side for their game with rock-bottom Sheffield United with the talk being of a new deal rather than a new boss.
‘We haven’t had any discussions yet,’ said Solskjaer, whose current contract expires in 2022. ‘For me, (I’ll) just keep on doing my job as well as I can.’