Well said.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
- Status
Would any other profession be treated in the way we have towards the managerial position? The hot seat at Old Trafford must be one of most sought after positions in football and we've given it to someone with absolutely zero experience under his belt. Do you see hospitals employing year 1 medical students to perform surgeries? We're reliant on hope and it doesn't ease my fears.
I'm not talking about "one man to act as the first team manager and the director of football". I'm saying that you don't need a DoF if you appoint a manager whose vision is long-term and if the club chair likewise prioritises the long-term over the short-term.
You say, "Name one current successful manager at a top European club who has been there for more than five years?". You could also ask "Name one current successful DoF at a top European club who has been there for more than five years?"
Moreover, and Simeone aside, Pochettino has been at Spurs 5 years and counting, Klopp at Liverpool 4 years and counting
A DoF is just another complication, another rung in a hierarchy, another addition to the wages bill, and will lead to conflict with the manager more often than not.
And neither manager has been successful so far. That truth hurts, but, certainly, not for elite clubs. They could change somewhat in the next few months, but they would have already got the sack at Real, Barca, Juventus, Bayern, United, Chelsea, heck even City.
The days of all-powerful elite managers being given the reigns at the clubs who aspire to be the elite is over. There's too much conflict of interest between shooting for short term success and long term sustainability.
Random question, what was Levy doing before he came to Spurs? He seems very shrewd in relation to footballing matters, was he at another club previously?
It's not over at Spurs, regardless of your convenient 'elite' caveat.
Spurs aspire to become an elite club - and are putting in place the long-term building blocks to support this aspiration. Pochettino has signed up for the long-term project and has been given total control over the squad - no player is bought or sold without his agreement and he is part of a three-person transfer committee that also includes Levy and John McDermott (Academy Manager).
If Pochettino can agree with the prioritisation of longer term objectives (e.g. funding the new stadium) over short-term desires (e.g. having lots of transfer funding) then so can other managers at other clubs. United just need to decide on such prioritisation themselves - in contrast to the last 5 seasons - and find a good manager who agrees with this approach ... maybe Ole is that man for all I know.
He studied Economics and Land Economy at Cambridge, formed a business association with Joe Lewis (now the biggest Spurs shareholder) and became involved with Lewis in ENIC, an investment trust of whom Levy was (and is) managing director. He then became a director of Rangers until 2004 - Rangers were at that time owned by ENIC.
Levy (ENIC) made an attempt to buy Spurs from Alan Sugar in 1998 but failed. Another attempt was made in July 2000 - that was again rejected, but increasing hostility by fans towards Sugar eventually persuaded Sugar to sell. Levy was then appointed to the board of Tottenham Hotspur in 2000 and replaced Sugar as chairman of Spurs in 2001 on the completion of the sale.
Very Interesting, thanks.
You’re deluded. Spurs isn’t a comparable example as you’re not an elite club. Your current golden age consists of reaching a CL semi and once finishing second in the PL. You’ve won two bits of silverware in the PL era. You both face no pressure to realise, and then actually deliver don’t deliver, tangible success. The top European clubs would find your recent seasons tragic.
I don't see any other way than backing him and hoping he's the right man for the job. Appointing him full time before the end of the season was daft. The thinking behind that was probably to try to tie down Martial, Rashford and Pogba, knowing they'd have a manager who loves them. Just a guess.
Whether people have total faith in him, major doubts, or anything in between, we can't pretend that when he came in he had the doubts about the squad he certainly has now. It was all rose tinted glasses and reminiscing about the glory days.
He's said the club is fantastically well run. He's said we've got a great scouting system. He's said he doesn't need a new defender. Surely, all of those opinions have changed. He's also indulged Pogba, praised him when he's not deserving of it, spoken of him as a future captain, which all feels like an orchestrated club effort to ask him kindly to do us the huge favour of staying.
I'm relieved Ole has had the opportunity to see what the players are made of. That certainly needed to happen before the end of the season. I also hope he adds some authority to his coaching staff if Phelan is moved horizontally into a Technical Director role. He might also need someone to help organise the team tactically.
Whether people have total faith in him, major doubts, or anything in between, we can't pretend that when he came in he had the doubts about the squad he certainly has now. It was all rose tinted glasses and reminiscing about the glory days.
He's said the club is fantastically well run. He's said we've got a great scouting system. He's said he doesn't need a new defender. Surely, all of those opinions have changed. He's also indulged Pogba, praised him when he's not deserving of it, spoken of him as a future captain, which all feels like an orchestrated club effort to ask him kindly to do us the huge favour of staying.
I'm relieved Ole has had the opportunity to see what the players are made of. That certainly needed to happen before the end of the season. I also hope he adds some authority to his coaching staff if Phelan is moved horizontally into a Technical Director role. He might also need someone to help organise the team tactically.
Oi Ed! I know you read this forum, so this is the post you need to take notice of.
Like us?
You are one month here and you write this shit. Bloody hell, newbies see Ole threads as something where they can prove that they are top red.
Instead telling poster to "feck off", you can rather explain to that poster( and to me) why Ole is not average manager. Based on what you think that he is good manager?
Yep. Trophies have provided nice moments, but they’ve not been built on.
Yes, yes and yes!!!
Ok, you don’t want to knock Ole but let’s be honest - what exactly did he have on his CV that made him a better option than many other manager?
If he was such a good manager how come a mid table team in Germany didn’t take a punt on him, for example?
He has one of the biggest jobs in world football based on a nothing CV.
We are almost certain to lose our next 2 matches which will see an end to any slim hopes of top 4 and will see us getting toward the points difference between us and top 4 as when he took the caretaker position.
Hasn’t shown anything tactical in my eyes to suggest he can achieve anything here. What sort of players are going to want to come and play for a team with him in charge this summer? Genuine question. Are young and hungry players, like the Felix lad for example, going to risk us over Liverpool and Co? Not a chance unless we start throwing big money around....ring a bell?
Should never have got the job until the end of the season. The timing of the appointment just doesn’t make sense at all - and I said that before we went in this disastrous run.
If he was such a good manager how come a mid table team in Germany didn’t take a punt on him, for example?
He has one of the biggest jobs in world football based on a nothing CV.
We are almost certain to lose our next 2 matches which will see an end to any slim hopes of top 4 and will see us getting toward the points difference between us and top 4 as when he took the caretaker position.
Hasn’t shown anything tactical in my eyes to suggest he can achieve anything here. What sort of players are going to want to come and play for a team with him in charge this summer? Genuine question. Are young and hungry players, like the Felix lad for example, going to risk us over Liverpool and Co? Not a chance unless we start throwing big money around....ring a bell?
Should never have got the job until the end of the season. The timing of the appointment just doesn’t make sense at all - and I said that before we went in this disastrous run.
Dunno about certain to lose our next two matches. I mean, I hope City destroy us and I reckon they will but make no mistake, Chelsea and Sarri are as much of a joke as we are right now. That one is up for grabs and it’s about who’s less shite on the night.
If his name was not Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and he never played for the club, I reckon this thread would have much more posts mostly hitting out at Woodward for giving the permanent job based on a few games to some bloke from Norway who failed at Cardiff.
If his name wasn’t OGS, he would never have even got his CV past the first read.
Given the state of our club recently, to make a managerial appointment out of sentiment and nostalgia is just daft.
Nonsense. He smiles a lot, knows United and....that is it. Who cares that nobody basically doesn't know what is his style, who cares that he didn't win anything outside Norway, who cares that he had debacle with Cardiff. He is positive guy and our legend. It is his CV. And it is enough to be manager of biggest club in the world.
What can go wrong? Show some support, ffs. If you think that Ole is not good enough for Man Utd then you don't support United. Or something like that
1000 times this. Ed was attacked here when he bought unknown young player from Monaco. But this is ok because this is Ole? I just can't understand that logic.
People who defend him ask questions about his game style. When you must ask what is formation and style of your new manager than something is wrong there
Last edited:
No goal from open play in the last 437 minutes of football.
We failed to score a goal in 4 of our last 8 games.
We failed to score a goal in 4 of our last 8 games.
The 2 things I am most anxious to find out this summer are: 1) how ruthless he will be in chopping the deadwood and 2) the answer to that bolded question.
If we can't take a major step up in terms of technical quality after summer additions, it won't bode well for Ole's future. I would just see a lot more talk of pride and spirit and work rate in the future.
He has the team training at the cliff? Not sure what he hopes this will achieve.
All this "in the past" stuff is starting to get a bit much now, it is beginning to sound like this is all just a trip down memory lane for Ole. Shoving the "what we used to do", "how it used to be in my day", "when fergie was the boss" down everyone's throats isn't going to bring success, but he is sounding like he thinks its the golden ticket.
I get it for laying down a few ground rules, like back to wearing suits and all that stuff, but come on now going back to the old training ground? Why?
Please don’t tell me this is true?
He’ll have the team playing in the old 99/00 Sharp replica kit next!
It was daft to give him a permanent contract just after a loss rather than waiting for the season to end. He hasn't overachieved if he takes us to 6th, when overachievement was the whole point of considering him as a candidate. Really think we should have chased Pochettino.
Woodward might be the only club chief to have fecked up next season months before it even started.
Just saw on the BBC that Solskjær took the players to the Cliff to train this morning instead of Carrington.
From BBC via the MEN:
From BBC via the MEN:
Not for lack of chances. Formations were right, passes and shots were not.
I remember when this used to be a striker issue. Now it's a manager issue...
Yeah, I hope he has more to him than love for our past. At the same time he needs time to show us what he's capable of.
This is cringeworthy, and I'm fully behind Ole. The vast majority of those players will have no connection to that. Of course the academy lads will, but our international players won't give a feck. It sounds more like a school trip than a training session to them. This is a genuine question, but has any big club done this type of sentimental stuff during their rebuild?
It all sounds a bit archaic in all honesty. Referencing the 'good old days'.
Agree to an extent but at the same time, we've got nothing else to hold on to at the moment and it's probably more of a barometer to find out who actually cares about the club and who doesn't. I bet the one's that looked disinterested and didn't really give a shit about the 'history' of the place are the one's that aren't featuring today.
Ole has a chance if he is ruthless. He needs to do what the other managers have failed to do before them and cut the dead wood. The dead wood who time and time again have underperformed and let the club down. If he can get rid of Jones, Smalling, Young, Matic, Lingard, Lukaku and Sanchez he will have a chance. If he goes down the road of continuing to say these are good lads and support them, when it was so blatant that they gave up on Sunday he will join the other 3 managers before him and be sacked.
If you go by who is interested in our history then we'll be mid table very soon because we'll be fielding an 11 from the academy. There's nothing wrong with having players in the team that are utmost professionals and give their all every game while being good players.
Foreign players like Mata that have huge respect for the club are very rare. Most footballers are just doing a job.
How's it cringeworthy? At worst it's irrelevant...it's just training.
I'm fine with a team of academy players next season. Even if we finish 11th, I'm fine with that. I'd have a lot more time for 11 kids trying their best than a bunch of overpaid twats phoning it in when we need a fecking win.
I agree though, we should have a core group and then augment it with proper talent. Like the way we've always done things until recently...
Yes it is just training, but Ole went the extra mile and got all nostalgic hoping the players would get a lift from it. Don't get me wrong, If I was on that training pitch I'd have a massive smile on my face because its a former training ground. But is it gonna do anything for the foreign lads in the team?
I agree it probably won't but it's hardly doing any harm?
- Status