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Nothing would more damningly illustrate Manchester United’s apparent inability to escape from a repeat cycle of self-destruction than a return to the management of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
As United try for the umpteenth time to drag themselves forwards, handing another chance to a man who has failed once would only represent a meek acceptance of diminished status.
And Solskjaer did fail as manager of United. There has been some revisionism about his three years as manager between the early winters of 2018 and 2021.
United did get a bounce – a big one – out of the 52-year-old when he succeeded Jose Mourinho on a temporary basis. It earned him the job and he took United to second in the Premier League in the Covid-impacted season of 2020-21.
But by the time he left – in tears after a battering at Watford later that year – Solskjaer was as broken by the United experience as all of those who preceded and followed him. To return to him now would be an admission by United’s new executive team that they are simply out of strategy and ideas.
Managing a club like United should represent a highlight – maybe even the pinnacle – of a coach’s career, even if it is just for a five-month interim period. Director of football Jason Wilcox and chief executive Omar Berrada should think hard about that before handing the role back to a guy whose principal qualification is that he once scored a big goal for United in a Champions League final.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was a broken man by the time he left Manchester United in 2021, following a humiliating loss to Watford
The Norwegian gave United a bounce when he first arrived as interim boss, but it ultimately proved to be a false dawn
Solskjaer’s principal qualification for the manager’s job is that he once scored a big goal for United in a Champions League final
Speaking at a fan event some time after leaving, Solskjaer said there had been ‘too many snowflakes’ in the United dressing room during his time as manager, too few players able to handle the pressure of life at Old Trafford. It’s easy to imagine him thinking this given he shared a pitch with men like Roy Keane, Peter Schmeichel and Paul Scholes.
But it was Solskjaer who failed to stand firm when the club foisted the return of Cristiano Ronaldo on him back in August 2021. He subsequently admitted the move negatively influenced his squad.
It was Solskjaer’s United that lost four of his last five Premier League games 4-2 at Leicester, 5-0 at home to Liverpool, 2-0 at home to Manchester City and 4-1 at Watford.
It was Solskjaer who laboured under the ridiculous illusion that a midfield axis of Fred and Scott McTominay represented a vision of a successful United future.
Things are bad once again at United right now but is this really the road they wish to travel? Surely it can’t be so.
Solskjaer is not the worst of the men who have followed Sir Alex Ferguson into the United manager’s office. Not by any stretch. He did understand the needs and wants of the Old Trafford paying public. He knew how to treat people and understood the demands of the club and its supporters.
But these qualities are too often spoken of as if they form some kind of elusive and magical elixir. The truth is that they should be the very basic requirements. If a United manager doesn’t understand these matters then he shouldn’t even be in the frame for the job, never mind at the centre of the picture.
Solskjaer had his moments as United manager but when he left he looked and sounded very much as though he had given all he had, that his race was run. Listening to him talk on Gary Neville’s podcast recently in the wake of his sacking by Besiktas in Turkey, Solskjaer did not sound for one moment like a man desperate for a return to management any time soon.
In the wake of his sacking by Besiktas in Turkey, Solskjaer did not sound for one moment like a man desperate for a return to management any time soon
Solskjaer failed to stand firm when the club foisted the return of Cristiano Ronaldo on him back in August 2021
If the Norwegian feels he needs some time out then he has earned it. Besiktas was his fourth job in management. But this is not the kind of vibe Wilcox and Berrada should be chasing right now.
United, after the on-field stagnation of the Ruben Amorim months, are in need of an injection of hunger and purpose delivered by a coach in the building to prove his own worth rather than to just hold the door open for somebody else.
The club shouldn’t necessarily be blamed for not having a succession plan. Amorim’s tenure unravelled quickly. It happens in football.
But having to make a decision quickly and on the hoof is no excuse for making an easy bad one. Solskjaer had his time and ultimately didn’t have what it takes. He sits now as just another member of a rather non-exclusive club and should be treated as such.
