How is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer still in a job?
If Manchester United lived in a modern reality Ole wouldn’t have been in the top ten candidates to land that job.
He wouldn’t have been in the top 20 candidates to manage Manchester United.
It was purely an emotional link. The emotion is there, the club knowledge is there, club legend is there and let’s fit it to our circumstances.
However, there was no way Ole had the requisite CV to manage Manchester United, and especially a Manchester United in flux.
Once he’s in as manager, you can see them thinking: We hope he grows with the club, we hope he develops youngsters. Give him longevity by always backing him.
It means these difficult questions over his performance don’t get brought up, and he gets more and more comfortable in the job, better results and we get some trophies.
But the trophies have not come. The consistency hasn’t come.
I can feel the hand of Sir Alex Ferguson, doing what the hand of Alex Ferguson did with David Moyes.
And that means going into hallowed corridors of Old Trafford and saying you stuck with me 30 years ago, and I paid you back with two decades of dominance. This is the way it should be run…. You give managers time, you give them time.
David Moyes didn’t last very long on his six-year contract of course, and the only reason why Ole is at UNited still there today is because of the perception that the club like to give their managers time, like they did with Fergie.
Their results this season, losing in the manner they did against Leicester, against Villa at home, is not consistent at all.
The question lingers as to how he is still Man U manager, and it comes down to lacking an understanding of modern football. Yes, you give a manager time until he proves to you that he does not have the ability to do it anymore.
And in my opinion, Ole doesn’t have the ability and the skillset to manage United to Premier League success.
It is no thrill to say that, because he is a great bloke. But sometimes you have to say it - the romantic and emotional attachment which got him the job, and gave him time in the - wears out at some point.
United won’t win the league because they are too inconsistent. You look at the team sheet and it looks like Galacticos have been thrown at a tactics board.
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They have the second-best squad in the league in terms of quality and depth, but haven’t got a clue how to use it.
You need someone in the club who says here are the 11, or 14 players I will be relying on in the big games, like City and Liverpool do. And then say we are trimming down the fat and getting rid of some of the monster earners who are never going to get a regular place.
There are wildly different qualities in the No.1 and No.2 players for each position. Some can do a job, and others can’t.
It needs clear answers, clear leadership, to be able to rattle cages and put your arm around people, and Ole looks lost in all of those aspects.
The players are not responding to him. They are not competing eight games in, so why leave it 38 for it to become a self-fulfilling prophecy?
So change it now.