United are a shambles and Solskjaer is not cure
Woodward is acting like a superfan, the Glazers are interested only in money – and players are throwing manager under the bus
Amid all the analysis of Manchester United’s enduring woes there is plenty of tiptoeing around one key question. Is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer the right manager to lead them back to the top of English and European football?
Other factors are being emphasised – all justified – such as the role of chief executive Ed Woodward, transfer policy, the commitment of the players and contribution of the owners.
These issues are undoubtedly part of why United have fallen since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson. But it does not change the fact that Solskjaer’s record since taking the job permanently is poor.
Let us be honest. There is an understandable reluctance from United supporters, ex-players or anyone with a love of or affiliation to the club to admit the coach is not performing at the required level for a club of such stature.
Solskjaer is not liked by United fans. He is loved. It is too difficult for many to bring themselves to point the finger at him in the way they did David Moyes, Louis van Gaal or Jose Mourinho. Even neutrals who saw Solskjaer’s postmatch interview after last week’s defeat at West Ham could not help but feel sorry for him.
To me, Solskjaer still resembles an interim manager – in place to clear the dressing room of expensive, underperforming names and put the spine of a team together for his successor. In my view, he will never lead United to a league title or win the Champions League, because, even if he achieves the goal of restoring stability, he will be replaced by an established, elite coach.
It may not be in his nature, but that is why it has reached the stage where it would be wise of Solskjaer to help himself more by putting pressure on those above to make more signings during the January window as he may not be in charge for another one.
I said on Sky TV on Sunday, no matter how bad things appear, at a club that size it is never quite as horrific as it seems. The infrastructure, global following and enduring lure of playing for and managing United means it will get better.
I say this from experience. As United struggled past Rochdale on penalties in midweek, I was reminded of the lowest point of my Liverpool career – watching a shadow side lose a shootout at home in the League Cup to Northampton Town. In the same week in 2010, the club’s owners were fighting off the threat of administration. If you had told supporters then that over the next nine years the club would appear in three European finals, win the Champions League and have the Fifa coach of the year in charge, they would have said you were deluded.
What changed is that Liverpool put the right men in position, not only on the training pitch, but at the top. The difference was an ownership group who not only had a vision but employed those who understood and stuck to it. Those who did not were moved on. Personnel changed, the plan did not.
United’s vision has persistently changed, and there is still no clarity about who is really directing it. Does Woodward act alone or take advice from the Glazer family? What policy do the Glazers believe in? People often say a good owner is one who keeps out of the footballing operations, letting those who know the game and the transfer market get on with it. This is not right. The owner must ensure impressive employees are carrying out their plans. All we have seen at United is a series of haphazard policies failing and being ripped up to try something else. Moyes will find all the talk of a “long-term plan” familiar, as he was under the impression he was starting one in 2013, until results and performances brought his tenure to an immediate end. It was back to short-termism then. When Woodward turned to Van Gaal, it was rather like he was stuck in a Nineties time warp, turning to a coach who peaked two decades earlier.
The pursuit of immediate success – a guaranteed winner – took Woodward to Mourinho, even though the embodiment of United, Sir Bobby Charlton, had expressed concerns. In the meantime, United moved away from a development culture to embark on a galactico spending spree. Solskjaer’s successful stint as a caretaker, earning him a permanent position, brought us full circle, back in the “longterm plan” territory Moyes thought he was in six years ago. When Solskjaer started well, Woodward acted like a lovestruck teenager, proposing marriage after a couple of enjoyable dates.
It was obvious then that those players who threw Mourinho under the bus would be no different under Solskjaer once the honeymoon was over. So it proved.
Most recently, we have witnessed Woodward acting like a United superfan, apparently meeting a series of club legends who might take on the position of sporting director. None of those mentioned have any experience in such an important role in modern football. It smacks of image over substance.
There are at least half a dozen genuinely outstanding sporting directors working in the Champions League who have transformed their clubs with a clever recruitment policy and clearly defined style of football from their academy upwards. That Woodward is not targeting those suggests he wants to appoint someone with a name, not an individual who will challenge his sphere of influence and power.
Responsible owners would not tolerate this shambolic approach to running their club, leading to an obvious conclusion. The Glazers do not care because United are making money regardless of what is happening on the pitch. In such a world, a pitiful defeat at West Ham can be bracketed as a “short-term distraction” by their chief executive.
United can and will get out of this mess. Why? Because they are Manchester United. But it is up to the owners how long it takes.
It will not happen with the current structure. Whenever you hear about the encouraging financial results – underlining why Woodward is held in such regard by the Glazers – the harder it becomes to escape the conclusion that with this ownership and set-up, United have become a commercial enterprise which just happens to be attached to a football club.
Solskjaer’s struggles are obviously a symptom of this unhealthy contradiction at the heart of the modern United. It does not mean he is the cure.