Players lost all faith in manager to leave legend as a lame duck
Missed chances to upgrade on Solskjaer, instead sticking with Norwegian despite warning signs he lacked tools or authority to lift team
⮞executives
The extraordinary thing about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign as Manchester United manager is that it lasted as long as it did. It was only four weeks after Solskjaer had been given the job permanently, by an Old Trafford hierarchy swept away on a tidal wave of euphoria and eschewing the “thorough recruitment process” they had promised, that the first of what would become periodical crisis talks began.
It was April 25, 2019, the day after a 2-0 home defeat by Manchester City had followed a 4-0 evisceration by Everton at Goodison Park, when Ed Woodward sat down with Solskjaer and assistant Mike Phelan for a lunchtime summit at the training ground to discuss the club’s deepening problems after a seventh defeat in nine games brought an unceremonious end to the post-mourinho bounce.
Mini-booms followed by slumps followed by salvage acts followed by more bumps, slumps and revivals and a board so wedded to their self-proclaimed “cultural reboot” and hellbent on seeing their initial gamble on a club legend pay off that they ignored all the warning signs long before the wheels really did fall off what felt like a never-ending rebuild.
Had United waited until the end of that 2018-19 season to make a decision on the manager, it is hard to believe they would have still given Solskjaer the job after such a dismal finish to the campaign culminated in a 1-1 draw at Huddersfield and a 2-0 defeat at home to Cardiff, another relegated team.
But, having prematurely placed their trust in the “stop gap with option value”, as the Norwegian was originally viewed, they kept on doubling down on Solskjaer when more attractive alternatives presented themselves, and have now backed themselves into a corner with a team in freefall and any legacy hard to determine.
Few players have been improved, there is no playing identity, big decisions have been shirked, confidence is at rock bottom and, for all the talk about “the United way”, no one is any wiser after 168 games about what “the Ole way” is. The road to Jose Mourinho’s dismissal was described inside Old Trafford as “a death by a thousand cuts” and the painful end to Solskjaer’s tenure could be couched in similar terms. Two years ago, United had a three-man shortlist featuring Mauricio Pochettino, Thomas Tuchel and Julian Nagelsmann in the event they ever jettisoned their manager. There was a 13-month window between Pochettino being sacked by Tottenham and Paris St-germain hiring him in which United could have appointed the Argentine, and a 12-month window with Tuchel between his departure at PSG and arrival at Chelsea. Yet United stuck by Solskjaer.
In the previous five seasons, it had required an average of 95 points and almost 31 wins to win the Premier League title. Solskjaer’s best return was 74 points and 21 victories last season – still seven points and four wins short of United’s record under Jose Mourinho in 201718. United had never finished further adrift of the Premier League winners than in Solskjaer’s first full season and, on current form, are on course to muster just 16 wins and 54 points, despite possessing a squad worth £840million and a wage bill expected to hit £387million this term. It is four years and counting since the club last won a trophy.
One senior executive at a rival Premier League club expressed astonishment that United had awarded Solskjaer a new threeyear contract in the summer, with the option of additional 12 months, but reflected the wider mood within the game that it was “no bad thing for the rest of us”.
Two clean sheets in the past 25 matches is a damning statistic, as is 11 wins from 27 home league fixtures dating back to the end of the 2019-20 campaign. United had an impressive record on the road but that has been blown away now fans are back in grounds.
At 10am on Thursday, Solskjaer called a meeting of his senior players to try to figure out a way to resuscitate their season. Cristiano Ronaldo, captain Harry Maguire, Bruno Fernandes, Nemanja Matic, Luke Shaw and Victor Lindelof were present. Yet United’s players, subconsciously, had checked out weeks before, dwindling confidence eventually giving way to a loss of faith in the manager’s tactics and selections, and performances that left you wondering what the club do on the training field each day.
The day before United’s 3-2 win over Atalanta last month Solskjaer was openly challenged by players during a frank exchange of views that pointed to the dressing room’s lost trust.
Eric Bailly, who was overlooked for Maguire in the 4-2 defeat at Leicester a few days earlier, reputedly asked Solskjaer why he had picked a centre-half “who was not fit”. The manager was challenged by others over the continued exclusion of Donny van de Beek, Jesse Lingard and Matic.
Solskjaer’s perceived “favouritism” shown towards some underperforming players also heightened tensions. Lingard – who has abandoned talks over a new contract – appeared in open defiance on Friday, when he posted an image of himself on his Instagram stories celebrating in a West Ham shirt, having spent the second half of last season on loan there.
There was disbelief in some quarters that United started the 5-0 capitulation to Liverpool with the same team taken apart defensively in the first half against Atalanta.
Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani have sought to lead by example. But Ronaldo feels some in the squad want it too easy and he is not the only person who was around when the club were a trophy-winning machine and who has been alarmed by the drop in standards.
As recently as the middle of last month, prior to the Leicester defeat, Woodward was telling friends they remained firmly behind Solskjaer, but the mood changed after the mauling by Liverpool.
United’s decision-makers clung to the hope he could ride the storm. Yet others felt he was nothing more than a “lame duck” from that stage onwards and, after being fortunate to escape with only a 2-0 defeat at home by a dominant City, some players not on international duty were surprised the manager gave them the option of the following week off.
It was all a far cry from those early days under Solskjaer when his warm persona was welcomed by players and staff at their wits end after the toxicity of Mourinho’s final six months in charge.
Mourinho used to sit in the corner of the canteen “like the grim reaper” observing staff scurrying in, according to one well-placed source. Solskjaer was the polar opposite. He could remember the names of children of staff he had not seen for years.
Academy staff ignored by Mourinho revelled in the open lines of communication. Executives likened conversation with Solskjaer to talking to “Ferguson plus Ferdinand plus Rooney” and were bowled over when, the morning after he had made it two wins from two as caretaker manager, he produced a flip chart detailing how the team might look in three years’ time.
Players appreciated his personal touch.
Solskjaer was openly challenged by the dressing room during a frank exchange of views
Juan Mata was grateful for the time off Solskjaer gave him to visit his ailing mother, David de Gea the opportunity to spend time back in Spain for the birth of his daughter, Yanay. Solskjaer hitting back at Rio Ferdinand over his criticism of Phil Jones was not lost on the injured-plagued United defender.
Solskjaer had sought to impose his authority early on when he tore into his players during a furious half-time dressing down in an FA Cup win over Reading a fortnight into his reign. But he never induced fear among the squad and lacked the tools to help the club make the next jump.
He also erred by not appointing a more experienced first-team coach and greater toplevel expertise.
Having jettisoned Marouane Fellaini within weeks of taking over and later moving on Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez, Solskjaer, strangely, seemed to grow more indecisive the longer he was in the job. He has given the impression of a man scared of upsetting some of the team’s star names this term.
Solskjaer’s best spell actually came in the wake of yet another show of support from his superiors. After a 6-1 trouncing by Spurs was followed a few weeks later by defeat by Arsenal and a defensive horror show against Istanbul Basaksehir, Solskjaer had become more withdrawn.
Yet he would take huge confidence from a conversation with Woodward in the lead-up to a league match at Everton in November last year, when his future was again the subject of intense debate, in which the executive vicechairman reaffirmed the club’s staunch backing and a more bullish Solskjaer emerged. United won 10 and drew three of their next 13 league games before a defeat at home by Sheffield United marked the beginning of the end of their fleeting title challenge and, even during that domestic run, the club crashed out of the Champions League at the group stage.
Having ducked previous opportunities to bring in an upgrade, United should have parted company with Solskjaer in the wake of the Europa League final defeat by Villarreal in May. Instead, they sleep-walked their way into another mess they must now untangle.