I think the first few months were something to be thankful for, when he came in as interim, I looked forward to watching us for the first time in years. However there were signs even then that he would struggle long term and I felt that we were wrong to give him the job permanently even at the time.
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.
There’s no need to thank Ole Gunnar Solskjær, the manager, for anything.
People can ramble all they want about the club-DNA, intricacies in game-play, dressing room environment, tactical knowhow, an eye for talent, and what not, but a proper manager should be judged on three fronts - trophies, player-development/man-management, and a clear directionality of overall football. Ole has failed on all three fronts.
He is leaving the club in a worse state than when he joined three years back. He managerial ineptness has set back the club by at least a few years, wasted millions of cash, and even hindered youth development. In the same period, our three biggest rivals have won a whopping five major (PL/CL) trophies. Quite clearly, this is the worst managerial period post-SAF.
People can ramble all they want about the club-DNA, intricacies in game-play, dressing room environment, tactical knowhow, an eye for talent, and what not, but a proper manager should be judged on three fronts - trophies, player-development/man-management, and a clear directionality of overall football. Ole has failed on all three fronts.
He is leaving the club in a worse state than when he joined three years back. He managerial ineptness has set back the club by at least a few years, wasted millions of cash, and even hindered youth development. In the same period, our three biggest rivals have won a whopping five major (PL/CL) trophies. Quite clearly, this is the worst managerial period post-SAF.
Sooooo, kinda like now.
What are we thanking him for again? No trophies? For taking his dream job, one he wasn’t remotely qualified for and receiving 10 times the salary?
Thank you for 99.
Lets not talk about his stint here as a manager. Shambolic and embarrassing. Lets hope Ole keeps quiet and doesnt open his mouth again to talk about it, we know already his generic drivel by heart.
Lets not talk about his stint here as a manager. Shambolic and embarrassing. Lets hope Ole keeps quiet and doesnt open his mouth again to talk about it, we know already his generic drivel by heart.
Rumor is Gordon Lightfoot is rewriting his song about the Edmund Fitzgerald to be titled The Wreck of the Ole Solskjaer.
I must say, while all the posters here are absolutely fine, some of the posts are complete cnuts.
Sad it didn't work out for Ole, would of loved seeing him lift a trophy again.
Sad it didn't work out for Ole, would of loved seeing him lift a trophy again.
He should have never been made a permanent manager let alone been given a 3 year contract extension. Such decision and the hesitation that followed had hurt the club and Ole's career. The board (including Murtough) has alot to answer for that
Club legend of a player. Average manager.
A past his prime Mourinho was a miles better coach.
Still Ole brought many positives which I cant be arsed to list right now.
Who's next in this Glazer shitshow?
A past his prime Mourinho was a miles better coach.
Still Ole brought many positives which I cant be arsed to list right now.
Who's next in this Glazer shitshow?
You make me happy; when skies are grey...
Umm yeah thanks? Should never have been offered a permanent position and whilst its not his fault in the slightest and yes he sorted out some stuff behind the scenes, i'm not entirely sure theres a lot to be thankful of.
Haha
Leaves the club in a better state than he found it which is the least you can expect from a manager who has done a decent job.
Been a rough season but easy to forget he took us to finals and some great matches along the way.
Just hope we can get a manager that builds upon the good work he did.
Been a rough season but easy to forget he took us to finals and some great matches along the way.
Just hope we can get a manager that builds upon the good work he did.
I have said it so many times: Ole is just sitting in the wrong position in our club.
He is not a coach, has zero knowledge of football tactics, zero knowledge of integrating new players or player types, zero knowledge of putting his game idea on the pitch, zero knowledge of readjusting during a game.
But what he definitely managed to do was to improve the quality of the squad and to bring young players up or buy them in.
D.o.F. -> that would be the absolutely right position.
Many players, especially most of the defenders, are so incredibly insecure and let down that AWB, for example, is no longer recognisable compared to his debut season.
I still maintain that criticism of players is justified after such performances, but it is largely due to the incompetence of the coaching team in terms of football tactics, rather than the players themselves.
Thanks Ole, but show some insight and let the players, fans and club breathe again and see some hope.
He is not a coach, has zero knowledge of football tactics, zero knowledge of integrating new players or player types, zero knowledge of putting his game idea on the pitch, zero knowledge of readjusting during a game.
But what he definitely managed to do was to improve the quality of the squad and to bring young players up or buy them in.
D.o.F. -> that would be the absolutely right position.
Many players, especially most of the defenders, are so incredibly insecure and let down that AWB, for example, is no longer recognisable compared to his debut season.
I still maintain that criticism of players is justified after such performances, but it is largely due to the incompetence of the coaching team in terms of football tactics, rather than the players themselves.
Thanks Ole, but show some insight and let the players, fans and club breathe again and see some hope.
Thanks for bruno, see ya never.
One final wasnt it. We had in the end as many bad matches as good.
Ole... If you are reading the caf. Thank you....... for your goal in the nou camp.
Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999.
You need to understand how boards operate.
They meet with Ole, he explains his vision and how he plans to cut through. Why it hasn’t worked so far etc.
The board decides if it’s believeable or not.
This is an in-depth view, not what you read in the media or read on fan-boards like the Cafe.
They also consider a lot of other factors. What if they cut him short and he is on the verge of success, what if the plan works, what if the vision comes through, can we withstand the cost of it not happening, does the staff believe and the players and so on.
It’s easy to be an outsider, see where it stands now and explain how they failed.
If you want to understand that better, tell us exactly what should happen next and then let’s revisit in a year or maybe few months and see how incredibly right you were.
I think from a toxic point of view he cured that. I mean Jose era was brutal for that type of environment and Ole brought a bit of togetherness but that’s all to be fair. I’ll thank him for that but now please leave.
Last season in 2nd place.
Start of this season fans were ready for a massive success and 1st place. We felt the buildup was working and we had the right team, CR7 joining and all.
Until this season, it’s been progressing quite nicely actually. Best since SAF.
But we all here have the memory of a goldfish.
Best football since SAF (not hard).
First manager to get us back to back top 4 finishes since SAF.
Cleared out a tumescent, overblown squad and has improved us on paper immensely.
Brought back an air of Utd character bar the last couple of months.
Yes - he was tactically out of his depth and he's simply not a good enough manager for a club like Utd, but he gave his all and restored a lot from what was a far worse position under Jose.
First manager to get us back to back top 4 finishes since SAF.
Cleared out a tumescent, overblown squad and has improved us on paper immensely.
Brought back an air of Utd character bar the last couple of months.
Yes - he was tactically out of his depth and he's simply not a good enough manager for a club like Utd, but he gave his all and restored a lot from what was a far worse position under Jose.
Club legend I agree with to a point. Him being an average manager I strongly disagree with, unless if by average you mean awful.
If he was an average manager he would be comfortably in a title race now. There was absolutely no reason this squad should lose at home to Liverpool and City. An average manager would at least draw these games. An average manager would go to King Power Stadium and nick a win against a Leicester side that has been terrible this year and completely out of form.
An average manager would have had at least 25 points by now given the fixtures we have played so far. He would also have a positive GD.
I won’t even go into all the records he has broken at the club.
I know you are being kind and that you probably want to not be toxic, I get that, I do, but it is now we have to be honest. If we’re not honest we might let the board hire another obviously wrong manager and fans will be patient with the next guy too.
Solskjaer is not average. He has been way below average since 2014. He had 2 seasons in Molde were they dominated games, but even in Norway he was found out and fans of Molde wanted him gone the summer before he joined United and were glad when he left.
Who knows what could’ve been if he had good coaches surrounding him instead of what he had.
Couldn't have put it any better. I don't know why so many are actually thanking him!
Worst football since SAF this season (very very hard)
Not an achievement (the only goal of top 4 is CL football and Mourinho got it in his two full seasons)
Left an overblown and unbalanced squad.
We had a terrible record at home throughout his time at the club.
We're in the same position after Jose, we still need the right manager to make something of this mess on and off the pitch.
Twitter and Facebook are funny, all the people who have been posting ole out for months and writing all kinds of shite are now writing nice thank you ole posts 
#clubledgend
feck off with it.
#clubledgendfeck off with it.
I think this is an interesting view on where we are. Are we any further forward as a team in terms of style, performance and stability?
Clearly we are not in terms of league position and our prospects from. Champions League perspective.
I actually think we are in a worse state than where we were. We have huge problems on the pitch. Leaking goals, no control of games, no fear from the opposition being outplayed week in week out. and still after 3 years relying on moments of brilliance. Off the pitch the way we have handled this situation is laughable... The writing has been on the wall for weeks/ months and our ambitions for the season on the pitch have become clear... None.
All that without taking into account the huge investment in this squad which Ole has overseen. I actually think we are in a worse state. Costly expensive mistakes in the transfer market, players playing with no accountability for performance, obvious divisions in playing squad and no hope of it improving any time in the future.
We now find ourselves a million miles away from our biggest rivals, being mocked by every set of fans in the country, closer to relegation battle than title battle. Division within the fan base once again and whoever comes in to pick up the pieces has a huge task on their hands to pick up the pieces of this latest in a long list of messes...
Not sure where you're coming from. There was two and a half seasons of football to use to assess Ole’s football. If the Board were convinced by him despite that evidence that he could put it right, well, they were proven wrong spectacularly.
Leaving us in in arguably a bigger mess than Jose did. Spent shitload of money and won feck all in 3 years. Good guy but feck me he is a shite manager.
After getting 76 points last season and adding Ronaldo, Varane and Sancho I was hopeful we could've challenged for a title. I also had high expectations for VdB as he had a year to settle into a new environment and would be like a new signing if he showed the quality we saw in him at Ajax. His lack of chances and Ole's overreliance on a proven crap double-pivot of McFred was bewildering.
The season up until this point has been an utter shambles and if we remove the sentimentality of him being a club legend it's hard to come up with many positives of his entire reign when you factor in the money spent and the lack of trophies. If our board had shown more foresight and sacked him after the Villarreal match it might be easier to have a more positive outlook about his stint here.
A couple of things he can certainly be thanked for is getting rid of the deadwood and signing some genuinely class players, even though the squad is imbalanced and still has major weaknesses. This is the least he could do after spending a small fortune but credit where it's due I suppose.
The season up until this point has been an utter shambles and if we remove the sentimentality of him being a club legend it's hard to come up with many positives of his entire reign when you factor in the money spent and the lack of trophies. If our board had shown more foresight and sacked him after the Villarreal match it might be easier to have a more positive outlook about his stint here.
A couple of things he can certainly be thanked for is getting rid of the deadwood and signing some genuinely class players, even though the squad is imbalanced and still has major weaknesses. This is the least he could do after spending a small fortune but credit where it's due I suppose.
This is nowhere near the same situation as Jose. Everyone was saying we should be mounting a challenge with the squad at our disposal not 2 months ago, now it's overblown and unbalanced? Some weak areas but that's way over the top.
Agree it's been tumescent this season, but this is why Ole's gone. Other than that, Ole brought back a sense of identity and made it enjoyable following Utd again. It's right that he's gone, but it's a disservice to ignore that.
He's left us a squad with world class players running through it, with exciting young prospects and club legends. When Jose left you wondered what anyone could do with that lot, that's not the case now.
agree. Really wanted him to succeed. Saw some good football at times but the inconsistency hurt us.
Moyes was truly awful and I never thought I'd see worse but Moyes had us drawing 2-2 to Fulham. We just lost 4-1 to fecking Watford. We've never been as pathetically bad as we are now. Moyes is a solid Premier League manager who was out of his depth here. Ole is out of his depth in the Premier League let alone here.
He was a carataker manager who should've been replaced before this season. It was clear he's out of his depth.
But that should've been board decision and needed a lot of planning, which I think our board isn't capable of.
Anyway, Ole's not good enough to run this club, which is something we already knew before appointing him so I don't blame him as much as the feckin board.
But that should've been board decision and needed a lot of planning, which I think our board isn't capable of.
Anyway, Ole's not good enough to run this club, which is something we already knew before appointing him so I don't blame him as much as the feckin board.
Thanks for sorting the squad out, for the first team in years I feel we have a team actually capable of challenging for trophies.
That was one of the saddest things I've ever watched.
It was clearly a nervous smile and he seemed depressed and resigned to the fact that he was going to be sacked. I hate our board for letting this play out.
Thanks for spending nearly 500m, at least I was a happy muppet every summer during his tenure.
It’s a shame he didn’t go at the end of last season as he’d have been remembered fondly. That was highly unlikely but even if the embarrassment vs Liverpool was the end or at worst, City, it would have been manageable.
But to be humiliated against a team like Watford, with our captain being sent off really is the worst we could have imagined and is absolute rock bottom. He’s ruined his legacy in my view, time might heel things but for now, he’s absolutely shot himself in the head and is rightly viewed as a clown.
But to be humiliated against a team like Watford, with our captain being sent off really is the worst we could have imagined and is absolute rock bottom. He’s ruined his legacy in my view, time might heel things but for now, he’s absolutely shot himself in the head and is rightly viewed as a clown.