OLE MUST NOT LOSE
THE good news for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as he gingerly surveys the mud patches on the worn-out Prenton Park pitch this afternoon, is that Sir Alex Ferguson once survived being dumped out of the FA Cup by a League One side.
Admittedly he had 17 years of credit and an historic treble in the bank before he suffered that fate in 2010. And when he lost it was to high- flying Leeds, a northern powerhouse.
That was embarrassing but it wasn’t Tranmere Rovers, currently 21st in League One and scrapping in the National League two years ago. To reach for comparisons you would have to go back 26 years to 1984 when Harry Redknapp was a fresh-faced Bournemouth manager sporting a classic old-school adidas tracksuit telling Match of the Day how beating United 2-0 was the best day of his life.
How times change. Some old hands, United fans in the latter half of life, could not recall anything quite as dire as United’s display against Burnley on Wednesday night. In reality the 1970s were worse, especially the relegation of 1973-74. But that isn’t how it feels at Old Trafford at the moment.
United just can’t lose at Prenton Park. Tranmere are a good club with a proud tradition but they are clear about their relative status. Their fixtures were once delightfully marketed as ‘Friday Night Fever ,’ the Merseyside club playing early in the weekend so fans could go to watch Liverpool and Everton on the Saturday.
The reality is that this United side, shorn of Marcus Rashford, could lose today. They should have enough to win. But the display against Burnley didn’ t offer confidence. Nor did the reaction.
Those at the game reported that, once TV interviews had been fulfilled, players scurried out, many of them averting the gaze of waiting reporters. Being able to stand up and be counted in the worst of times marked Solskjaer out in his playing times.
Now as a manager he defends this young group, as he must, when the point is put to him that they’re hiding. ‘I have not seen many of my players getting their hoods up, hiding and trying to disappear,’ he insisted. ‘I can see loads of players that want this to be a success. We have open discussions behind doors but we are not going to hang people out to dry. That is just common sense because if I point a finger at you, more fingers get pointed back at me. So I disagree with you.’
The fighting talk is to be expected. Solskjaer believes in the core of this group, though he will need another six or seven players before he can say it is the team he wants. Paul Pogba will doubtless leave in the summer, freeing up budget to revitalise the midfield. ‘We have to spend wisely, that’s one of the keys for me,’ added Solskjaer. ‘We’ve spent loads of money in the past five or six seasons, since Sir Alex left, and I’ve got to make sure with the club that when we spend the money now it’s on the right types.’
Solskjaer i nsists he i s on a promise: that executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has looked him in the eye and agreed with his analysis that turning around this oil tanker of a club will take time. It should be said David Moyes felt he had been told the same, as did Louis van Gaal. Jose Mourinho, you suspected, was always too wily to be so trusting. But Solskjaer does believe.
‘When we sat down we all agreed, the club and I, that the culture had to change,’ he says. ‘It’s not like I’ve been told without my consent what we’re doing, because we agreed to things when we signed contracts.
‘I don’t fear for my position in that respect, I just keep working. Of course you need results but I won’t spend big money on someone to come in here now if they’re not right for the club.’ That’s bold; naive even. If he doesn’t sign a centre forward to bolster Anthony Martial and replace the Rashford goals, Solskjaer could end up doing what is right for the club, in not wasting their money, but losing his job.
In the same vein, allowing Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku to go last summer was probably right if they wanted to remould the club.
‘I have not thought: “Oh, I wish I had kept him.” Some of those we let go were not right for the culture I was trying to build. That is why we kept the players we know will run through a brick wall for the club — not everyone did.’
There was a hint t hat some compromise might be imminent, a short-term buy. ‘There might be s ome pl ayers out t here of a different age who could come in and help this young group.’
And Solskjaer refused to put a firewall between himself and Woodward at this difficult time.
‘It’s a skill to look yourself in the mirror sometimes and not just blame others,’ he said. ‘Some of us do blame others, some of us do think we’re better than others. I believe in the structure that’s been put in behind here in the time I’ve been here.’
Yet it’s going to take time for that to bear fruit. And recent history suggests at United time is a luxury not afforded to failing managers.