United caretaker wants to bring the joy back to Old Trafford
SCORING MIRACLE OF 99 WINNER January sales are off limits
SWUNWDWA.YP and the Premier League has changed. Back then, when I played, we maybe had one challenger in Arsenal for a period, and then Chelsea.
“Now there are five or six teams challenging, so it is a completely different competition.
“We are sixth now and that isn’t good enough. But it’s not just about results, it’s about getting the players to express themselves.”
To do that Solskjaer, who scored 126 goals in 366 games for United, will use the “Fergie Diaries” – notes he made in his final seven years of an 11year stay at the club.
“Early on, as a player, I used to keep a training diary. It was just details of what we did in training,” he said. “But when I was about 27 or 28, I started making more detailed notes of what the gaffer said and how he reacted to different situations. That would have been around 2000. Certainly, after an injury in 2003, I started observing him.
“I wrote all these little gems, little inputs that he made. I used quite a few of them back home, to be honest, at Molde – and they worked!
Knowledge
“I got all the credit when I shouldn’t have really! The things the gaffer said must have been so thought through.”
Now it’s up to Solskjaer to make an impact. “Sixth place is not where we want to be,” he added. “We want to improve – and we will!” loan himself from Molde and, although he will be striving to make the manager’s job his own, the club are reluctant to spend heavily in January.
Temporary moves are allowed but otherwise cash will be earmarked for the incoming chief.
Sacked Jose Mourinho splashed more than £410million in the transfer market and when that is added to the outlay under previous bosses Louis van Gaal and David Moyes the net spend is a whopping £750m.
And so Solskjaer has been told any imports will only be sanctioned on loan while
United decide which players will form part of their future.
That means the whole squad are on notice until the end of the campaign.
According to sources in Norway, Solskjaer will be in the money if he delivers silverware or qualifies for Europe.
He is earning £1m, but qualification for either the Champions League or Europa League will net him a sevenfigure bonus, while winning a cup will earn a £1m payday.
However, should he become the next permanent boss at Old Trafford Molde are set to benefit to the tune of £8m in a managerial transfer fee.