This is the sad thing about life. Just got to take it on the chin, especially when it happens to you one day.
Solskjaer's legacy and his future
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Exhibit one for German sense of humourNonetheless we might see Ole in the Bundesliga next season (of course I'm talking about Ole Werner here who might get promoted with Bremen)
This is very true. The endless excuses and holier than thou top red remarks from this group escalate the divide between the fans.
The same exists for our previous managers except that the Ole-in group is larger and more aggressive.
Reminds me somewhat of the movie and games industry with certain subpar titles having 2 camps pouring buckets of crap over each other.
People saying he seemed too stressed to manage again. I thought he was very very calm in the job. One of his actual strengths. Most of this idea of based on his few days at home during the international break
I love Ole best of luck you hero
This. I am just glad that the bullshit arguments like "left us in a better state", "laid the foundations", "brought back the soul of the club" , "built a good squad", "improved the atmosphere" and so on are dead and buried now and hopefully we can all more or less agree that:
1. Ole was never good enough, failed more of less as much as Jose and LvG and left us more or less in a comparably sorry state like they did (in terms of squad, atmosphere and results).
2. On the plus side for him - Ole did not do much worse than LvG/Jose in terms of results (you can say that the are comparable) whilst having a much worse CV. On the other hand in terms of legacy it did not really give the club that many positives either - top4 is not a trophy and we have a challenging battle for a CL place now after the collapse under him early in the season.
And also hopefully we can all now just celebrate and respect him mostly as a former successful player and a fan favorite, with him being a not-good-enough manager being just a footnote.
Absolute trash. The main problem was the ridiculous amount of abuse and bile directed towards Ole, and anyone who dared to want to give him time instead of demanding his sacking after every bad result. Now you and other outers are trying to make it out as if the non-abusive group were the problem? comedy gold.
I refer back to my previous post. These lot actually think being positive is a toxic trait FFS
I'm not going to pretend either side was innocent but some fanatics made it a habit of bumping old posts at the end of every season. Some idiots even pushed that anyone who voted ole out in the polls be banned. They are lucky no one was petty enough to do the same to their posts after he got sacked but these lot probably still need to find a new club because they were more invested in Ole's success than the club's. Even now these dimwits still stalk Ralf's tenure trying to bring him down to make Ole look good. You wouldn't know we're back in the top 4 race the way some put him down.
It's not trash even if it is half the truth. The pros and cons of Oles reign where exaggerated to such a degree from both sides that it caused a massive division among the fanbase. I think people made up their minds about Ole at an early stage and from there there was no convincing the other side of their convictions.
Looking back it really was quite childish with a lot of told you so depending on the performances of any given games from both sides and I include myself in that distinction which is why I'd be happy enough if we never gave another ex player the job unless he's there on absolute merit and not on a romantic notion that given enough time he'll be the one to take us back to the top.
As a fan we really are fickle people. Personally I want Poch to be our next manager but knowing he will divide the fanbase maybe just as much as Ole I'd swing my vote towards ETH because he seems to be the one the majority wants which would hopefully give him time to implement his ideas before the divisions start in earnest if things don't start as planned because let's face it, if Poch didn't hit the ground running it's going to turn into an us v them scenario pretty quickly.
It'll be a different kettle of fish next time. Why feel stressed when you have the total backing of the board, supporters singing your name, friends in the media protecting you and the players not having a problem with your easygoingness. Other teams and supporters won't embrace failure and ineptitude the way United and it's supporters did.
I was sat roughly where that photo was taken from. He was great with the fans at Bridgwater, he must have done a couple of hundred photos and autographs before the match. Good to see him looking so happy.
The problem was that he spent big money on 21 year old Sancho from Germany, 18 year old Amad from Italy and 19 year old Pellistri from Uruguay.
Solskjaer could have played it safe with a bunch of 27 year olds with lots of Premier League experience. But he took the high risk high reward route instead, hoping that gambling on youth from foreign leagues would strengthen United in the long run.
The risk didn't pay off quickly enough for Ole personally. But hopefully the club can benefit from his foresight for years to come.
Solskjaer could have played it safe with a bunch of 27 year olds with lots of Premier League experience. But he took the high risk high reward route instead, hoping that gambling on youth from foreign leagues would strengthen United in the long run.
The risk didn't pay off quickly enough for Ole personally. But hopefully the club can benefit from his foresight for years to come.
The idea that Ole was happy just to be in the job and had no ambitions beyond just staying...in the job - is ridiculous to me.
I think he knew precisely what he had to do.
He didn't have what it takes to do it, ultimately - he isn't cut from the same cloth as the man he, clearly, wanted to emulate. Deep down, he probably knows that too - and right now he's probably happy the whole business is over and done with.
Will be very interesting to see what he does next.
I think he knew precisely what he had to do.
He didn't have what it takes to do it, ultimately - he isn't cut from the same cloth as the man he, clearly, wanted to emulate. Deep down, he probably knows that too - and right now he's probably happy the whole business is over and done with.
Will be very interesting to see what he does next.
Hahaha
If Ole was happy just to be in the job, he'd have gone for Premier League proven Jack Grealish instead of 'yong & lernin' Bundesliga player Jadon Sancho.
That was the safe bet for instant success. But Ole chose the option that would give United a brighter long term future.
Come on, you are just cherry picking younger signings under Ole. We also signed Ronaldo, Cavani, Maguire, Bruno, Varane - 5 first team players who were either at peak or past is and as much "safe bets" as you can have. Everyone also knew that we chased Trippier just did not agree on price. And you cannot just cherry picking and attribute young signings to Ole, and blame Woodward/Club for older ones. I mean we also signed the likes of Shaw and Martial under LvG and Baily, Lindelof, Dalot under Jose, but no one credits them for "youth-oriented" transfer policy (and rightfully so) - and under Ole we overall did not shift it to "young and learning" at all.
The title of the thread is 'Solskjaer's legacy and his future'. So that's what I'm talking about.
Even so, the 4 players you mentioned are for the here and now. Ronaldo and Cavani were free, and have both been fantastic. Maguire has been poor this season, but was great the last two seasons and even got into the Euros team of the tournament in July. Varane is undoubtedly world class as well.
If Ole had bought more seasoned veterans like those, rather than splitting his purchases between the future and the present, he'd have been much better off. And possibly even built on the 2nd place we got in the league last season. But instead he prioritised United's future by spending the bulk of his transfer budget on kids.
If you want to talk about how Ole fecked things up in his last few weeks, there are plenty of other threads on that topic. But to bring it back to the thread title, his youth oriented transfer policy is his legacy.
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I disagree. While Sancho is only 21, he's not some sort of unproven youngster who you'd expect to have to wait years in order to get something good out of.
So yes, we've spent a little money on Pellistri and a little more on Amad, but that doesn't reflect the overall nature of our signings. Almost all of our signings were very much "here and now" players, even the younger ones (aside from those two).
Actually Ole wanted them both and he would probably have had them both if Aston Villa were relegated. Then Aston Villa survived, its price went to the wall, we went for VDB and Ole didn't even bother looking at him.
You're also making Jadon Sancho look as if he was the Bundesliga version of Bebe. It isn't the case. Sancho's stats with Dortmund were amazing, nearly young Ronaldesque level. Most of Ole's signings were safe.
What age were Maguire and Bruno when they were signed 25?
Hardly in the same age bracket as Cavani 33 and Ronaldo 36 mate. 25 years old isn't a players peak.
Your opinion on Ole is too skewed to be taken seriously. You even implicated him in the Greenwood thread ffs.
You can't see the good and the bad about Ole. You can only see the bad. And then you twist the good into the worst possible interpretation.
As United fans, we should all be aware of the risks of buying attacking players from the Bundesliga. The risk of failing to adapt is huge.
Maguire was 26, Bruno was 25. Studies show (link below) that for outfield players peak performance for outfield players is reached on average between 25 and 27 years old (for forwards rather 25, defenders rather 27). For every player the peak can be different but statistically they were both bought either exactly at their peak or very close to it.
https://content.iospress.com/downlo...sa0021?id=journal-of-sports-analytics/jsa0021
How his daughter end up at United woman’s. The mates rates is amazing at United.
As posters above have stated, Ole wanted Grealish aswell and to suggest we spent 75m on a unproven talent in hope for future development is a huge reach
I do believe Ole did chose the long term option generally for the benefit of the club, but if these transfers don't work out well then it's not really a legacy is it.
Sometimes "buying to win now" should be prioritised ..especially when the team hasn't won anything for a while
Solskjaer's legacy in my mind will be these 2 catastrophic moral failures. Had it been just one that happened under his watch, then I'd give him the benefit of the doubt but two is more than I can stomach. Add the uncertainty over Ronaldo's incident and you have an alarming pattern.
Apart from that, Fernandes a huge positive, most of the other transfers seem like a waste of money, though in time some may look differently. Results fairly similar to other post-Ferguson managers. Left behind a very unhappy playing squad.
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Grealish may have been on the shortlist of options. But Sancho was a higher priority.
United's transfer strategy is to compile a list of preferences for each position. That's been well documented over the years. And I'm sure Solksjaer would have settled for Grealish as a fallback option.
But Sancho is the one we prioritised. There was never any bid for Grelaish. If they were equal priority, we'd have negotiated for both at the same time. Instead, Solksjaer wanted the younger option, with the longer adaptation period - but who's upside would also have been bigger in the long term.
Every transfer is a gamble. Ole gambled for the benefit of United more than himself. Even if Sancho fails, that's still Solksjaer's legacy.
It’s nonsense to suggest Ole was prioritising players because they were younger. He signed a wide range of players in terms of their age, the only consistent factor is most have not been very good and or provided value for money.
He tried his best but he left behind a big mess that is going to take a lot of time and money to sort out. He left us exactly where he found us after 3 years, a huge wage bill and hundreds of millions spent. He won’t be first or last manager to be a failure and leave behind a mess at Utd.
Great unbiased argument there. I'll remember it the next time you criticise Jose. After all, he gambled for the better of the team when he bought young Dalot in.
His purchases taken individually was not bad. After all most of them were well known and proven players. Where he messed up was with players like AWB, DVB and Maguire. He also did not know how to coach a football team at the top level. His legacy is that he brought a feel good factor after the toxic time of Jose but did feck all to win any trophies after spending a ridiculous amount of money and left the club in a worse position than he took over because of the unbalanced side. He should never have been appointed in the first place. After three years LVG and Jose won trophies. Ole zilch.
In a we don't want you as manager kind of way
Agreed, with the exception of VdB, and some would argue AWB, none of them are bad signings at face value, but the problem is that they seemingly did not fit into a greater philosophy. It became painfully obvious when you then get a purist like RR to take over and you realize a sizable portion of the squad are square pegs in round holes
I'd say the managers should be the first ones aware of the risk. And if they take it and fail, it's not because they went for youngsters or anything like that.
Not that Sancho coming good right away would have made a huge change anyway. The team didn't fall apart because one big signing struggled to deliever.