Ole Gunnar Solskjær | Managerial Watch

Why Ole is not getting a job

a- He is not a former England/Italian/French/Spanish legend. Clubs owners (and fans) tend to close an eye to a local legend who became an idol with a club and country of that locality. Ole lack that and he lacks the connections these players tend to have made during that time

b- His two 'outside Norway' experiences ended up very badly. He tanked it at Cardiff and he was caught seriously out of depth at United. That burned bridges at both ends of the EPL.

c- Unlike shrewd rats like Mourinho he had never tried to defend his corner. That means that all the blame fell on him. That include criticism from Rangnick and ETH who both complained about the lack of discipline they fount at the club.

d- Ole had been accused of some very basic managerial mistakes. He hires mates (especially with Cardiff FC), he isn't very tactical, he doesn't coach, he's got the discipline of Hodor from GOT and when things got really tough he fecked off for a holiday when every half decent manager would have stuck to the club even for optics sake (not to look like a captain abandoning a sinking ship)


e- He might not be interested in managing a league 1/Championship club or Molde. That's a bit demeaning for a man who managed frigging Manchester United.
 
dann496 said:
It is hard for me to condemn Ole as manager, in the first place he was hired as interim anyway and hit some purple patches with the squad. The team back then looked happily united and playing better football than any manager after Fergie. United fans also quite happy with his signings back then, and there were so much hype with Ronaldo signing too. On that account, Ole lack quality to manage United on the long term and on hindsight, we shall not made him as permanent.
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The biggest issue was that there was zero competition for Ole at the time, and absolutely no reason to rush into a full time contract when we could have waited til the end of the season. By which point I doubt anyone would be advocating for him to get the permanent job (I know people were still backing him then but there's a difference between supporting the permanent manager and supporting a caretaker being appointed permanent manager). Absolute boardroom incompetence to give him the full time contract mid-season
 
At no point did I think that giving Ole the permanent job at Old Trafford was a good idea, and perhaps I'm a bit of a hypocrite in saying this now given that I was very critical of his tenure at the club, but I do think it is a bit unfair that he's become a complete meme because his reign ended catastrophically.

I don't think he deserves a Premier League job but I reckon if you stuck him in at the right Championship club he'd probably do at least a completely passable job. He was just over-promoted massively by a bunch of imbeciles at United.
 
He's a better manager than Lampard and Gerrard but not good enough for a PL job either. Needs to go manage in the Championship or Scottish league.
 
In his two full seasons at the club, Ole finished 3rd and 2nd. No other United manager post-Fergie managed two top 4 finishes. Whilst I agree that giving him a contract renewal after losing the Europa League final was a daft decision, and it was obvious that he had to be sacked once the wheels came off last season, it is sad to see so many United fans still sticking the boot in. It's been over a year now, but after reading some of the comments on here, you would've thought the 4-1 loss to Watford only happened last week.
 
Gabriel Djemba-Bebe said:
In his two full seasons at the club, Ole finished 3rd and 2nd. No other United manager post-Fergie managed two top 4 finishes. Whilst I agree that giving him a contract renewal after losing the Europa League final was a daft decision, and it was obvious that he had to be sacked once the wheels came off last season, it is sad to see so many United fans still sticking the boot in. It's been over a year now, but after reading some of the comments on here, you would've thought the 4-1 loss to Watford only happened last week.
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He spent 440m on a team that had finished second with 81 points 6 months before he took over. His full time seasons finished with 66 and 74 points. Talking about how he did ignoring the near half billion spent on a team that finished with more points than he managed suggests regression not progression
 
Gabriel Djemba-Bebe said:
In his two full seasons at the club, Ole finished 3rd and 2nd. No other United manager post-Fergie managed two top 4 finishes. Whilst I agree that giving him a contract renewal after losing the Europa League final was a daft decision, and it was obvious that he had to be sacked once the wheels came off last season, it is sad to see so many United fans still sticking the boot in. It's been over a year now, but after reading some of the comments on here, you would've thought the 4-1 loss to Watford only happened last week.
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Can we also mention the points rather than the actual position? Position is relative to other teams while points will show our actual progress made over the period of time.
 
bond19821982 said:
Can we also mention the points rather than the actual position?
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Not this again. I thought it was just Liverpool fans who cared about points totals. Are you also one of those people who belives that Klopp had better individual seasons than Fergie because his team got 97 points?
 
Al Nassr is his next destination as South Africa has been attracting a lot of stars recently
 
Gabriel Djemba-Bebe said:
Not this again. I thought it was just Liverpool fans who cared about points totals. Are you also one of those people who belives that Klopp had better individual seasons than Fergie because his team got 97 points?
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:lol: don't embarass yourselves by thinking 66 points is good enough for a club like ours when the top teams are consistently scoring 90+ every year .
 
He built a decent counter attacking Manchester United side.

But his obsession of British signings (ala Fergie) was his inexperienced mistake this time. Perhaps trying to emulate Fergie is his downfall.

Also signing Ronaldo was also his biggest mistake. His team stop functioning as a unit as soon as Ronaldo arrived.
 
anant said:
If someone told you at the end of Mou's reign (or even the beginning of the end of his reign) that we'll finish 3rd and 2nd in the following 2 seasons, I think everyone would have taken it.

It's only because it's Ole that we have "competition was shit", "no rotation", "where are the subs", "nepotism", "individual brilliance" etc. that went on. I mean I don't think anyone will say that we finished 3rd this season because Pool and Chelsea had poor seasons, nor would anyone credit our form to just Rashy's form/individual brilliance. And in a way, this is a good thing.

So, if he wants, he can easily get a good enough job. The question is after getting his dream job, would he want to take it up?
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If someone told you at the end of LvG’s reign, that we’d win the EL and League Cup, followed by an 80+ point second placed finish the following season, I think everyone would’ve taken that.

Listing league finishes or a achievements like that is simply a tiny part of the big picture; and I’d hope we’d have all learned our lesson now that all of our post SAF managers were fecking wank. 3 of them absolutely spunked hundreds of millions on horrific squad building and nothing about anything they were “building” appeared even remotely sustainable.
LVG looked like he was building a side to have 95% possession, zero threat and to end up on around 70 points every single season.

Mourinho looked like he wanted to build another team full of 30 year olds in the hope of winning one big trophy and then watch it all crash down around him, he couldn’t even manage that, despite spending daft sums of money. He actually lost his shit and his mind because the board thought that Willian and Perisic maybe weren’t the best deal for the club long term :wenger:

Ole looked every single season like he was winging it, looked utterly incapable of coaching a side, and that eventually one of his multiple shit runs of form would not be broken by a timely big result and that we would then nosedive.

The writing was on the wall for all of them, shite every single one, so the next time someone asks you “would you take 3rd and 2nd in the next two seasons”, you should reply:

“well that fecking depends mate… will we nosedive directly afterwards? Will we amass tonnes of points? Will we challenge? Will the football look good & sustainable? Will we look coached/drilled? Will the team look like it’s going places and can soon push for a title charge?”

Nothing about spending hundreds of millions, as much as anyone in the league to get 68 & 74 points, zero trophies, followed by a nosedive and a club/squad in need of a massive rebuild should be heralded as anything other than a massive failure, doesn’t matter what the feck the managers name is.

And yes, if we finish 3rd this season it’ll be much more impressive, because if we asks the questions above, it’s so far a resounding yes.
 
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anant said:
If someone told you at the end of Mou's reign (or even the beginning of the end of his reign) that we'll finish 3rd and 2nd in the following 2 seasons, I think everyone would have taken it.

It's only because it's Ole that we have "competition was shit", "no rotation", "where are the subs", "nepotism", "individual brilliance" etc. that went on. I mean I don't think anyone will say that we finished 3rd this season because Pool and Chelsea had poor seasons, nor would anyone credit our form to just Rashy's form/individual brilliance. And in a way, this is a good thing.

So, if he wants, he can easily get a good enough job. The question is after getting his dream job, would he want to take it up?
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Yup. All the excuses by folks who had decided he was going to be a failure no matter what. To an extent, he was, given that United were only going to aim for a title. But United's closest finish to the title was Solskjaer's 2020-2021 season. He wasn't given the funds to break world transfer records like his predecessor.
 
Thought Ole did ok-ish with United but problem is he already hit his ceiling which isn't very high.
His signings also left many question marks. More misses than hits, had no idea how he wanted team to play other than passiun and run a lot.

He isn't getting another big job for sure
 
Mmm-Qatarian said:
At no point did I think that giving Ole the permanent job at Old Trafford was a good idea, and perhaps I'm a bit of a hypocrite in saying this now given that I was very critical of his tenure at the club, but I do think it is a bit unfair that he's become a complete meme because his reign ended catastrophically.

I don't think he deserves a Premier League job but I reckon if you stuck him in at the right Championship club he'd probably do at least a completely passable job. He was just over-promoted massively by a bunch of imbeciles at United.
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He did with Cardiff. Doesnt cover himself in glory
 
bond19821982 said:
Can we also mention the points rather than the actual position? Position is relative to other teams while points will show our actual progress made over the period of time.
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They'll never learn, it"s completely pointless.
 
meamth said:
He built a decent counter attacking Manchester United side.

But his obsession of British signings (ala Fergie) was his inexperienced mistake this time. Perhaps trying to emulate Fergie is his downfall.

Also signing Ronaldo was also his biggest mistake. His team stop functioning as a unit as soon as Ronaldo arrived.
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Exactly, he tried very hard to be like SAF (even the way he dressed) which obviously couldn't have ended very well.
Coaching and tactics with Ole were all over the place, everything seemed hazardous and arbitrary.
He did some good things here also:

-Bought Bruno and Varane
-Gave confidence to Rashford and Martial
-Promoted Greenwood
-2 decent league finishes
-Good record against City
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
If someone told you at the end of LvG’s reign, that we’d win the EL and League Cup, followed by an 80+ point second placed finish the following season, I think everyone would’ve taken that.

Listing league finishes or a achievements like that is simply a tiny part of the big picture; and I’d hope we’d have all learned our lesson now that all of our post SAF managers were fecking wank. 3 of them absolutely spunked hundreds of millions on horrific squad building and nothing about anything they were “building” appeared even remotely sustainable.
LVG looked like he was building a side to have 95% possession, zero threat and to end up on around 70 points every single season.

Mourinho looked like he wanted to build another team full of 30 year olds in the hope of winning one big trophy and then watch it all crash down around him, he couldn’t even manage that, despite spending daft sums of money. He actually lost his shit and his mind because the board thought that Willian and Perisic maybe weren’t the best deal for the club long term :wenger:

Ole looked every single season like he was winging it, looked utterly incapable of coaching a side, and that eventually one of his multiple shit runs of form would not be broken by a timely big result and that we would then nosedive.

The writing was on the wall for all of them, shite every single one, so the next time someone asks you “would you take 3rd and 2nd in the next two seasons”, you should reply:

“well that fecking depends mate… will we nosedive directly afterwards? Will we amass tonnes of points? Will we challenge? Will the football look good & sustainable? Will we look coached/drilled? Will the team look like it’s going places and can soon push for a title charge?”

Nothing about spending hundreds of millions, as much as anyone in the league to get 68 & 74 points, zero trophies, followed by a nosedive and a club/squad in need of a massive rebuild should be heralded as anything other than a massive failure, doesn’t matter what the feck the managers name is.

And yes, if we finish 3rd this season it’ll be much more impressive, because if we asks the questions above, it’s so far a resounding yes.
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Literally no one has ever said that he shouldn't have been sacked or defends the last season, even though I think most people acknowledge that Ron's signing had wider implications.

And, on the same note, no one says Mou's 1st season was a failure. Most people (even those who were against appointing him) started liking him after the 1st season, and maybe till that Sevilla game.

I can get the consistency in results was an issue under Ole, but "winging it", etc. isnt really an excuse. If we do assume that is the case, and we say that it was the individual brilliance, then you can't really say that we need a squad building exercise - because the team has so much quality that they are finishing above every side bar City with a manager who knows nothing about coaching. And that's possibly the only argument I will never understand against him (other arguments - I can understand to an extent, although although dont agree with a lot of them)
 
Probably hasn’t got another job because his compensation money was like winning the lottery.
 
Can’t be short of takers surely if he wanted to come outside the top 6.
 
bond19821982 said:
:lol: don't embarass yourselves by thinking 66 points is good enough for a club like ours when the top teams are consistently scoring 90+ every year .
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I'd argue that caring more about points totals than your position in the table is far more embarrassing. I like how you avoided answering my question - was Klopp's 97 points total in 18/19 more impressive than any of Fergie's 13 titles?
 
Gabriel Djemba-Bebe said:
I'd argue that caring more about points totals than your position in the table is far more embarrassing. I like how you avoided answering my question - was Klopp's 97 points total in 18/19 more impressive than any of Fergie's 13 titles?
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Fergie left the field 10 years back. Standards have been rewritten since. Seriously, can't believe this has to be explained again. The average championship points is now 90-95 . Gone are the days where 75 points gets you the title. Seriously mate ?
 
I’m surprised so many actually somewhat rate his time here. Tactically inept he was a complete mess, one of the main reasons were because the players had zero discipline which created that very toxic atmosphere around the club, thank god we’ve got a proper manager in now that actually coaches players, improves them and doesn’t stand for any crap.
 
If City get stripped of their titles, how would the change people's perception of Ole as a manager and as a legend overall?
 
dannyrhinos89 said:
I’m surprised so many actually somewhat rate his time here. Tactically inept he was a complete mess, one of the main reasons were because the players had zero discipline which created that very toxic atmosphere around the club, thank god we’ve got a proper manager in now that actually coaches players, improves them and doesn’t stand for any crap.
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Interesting point of view. How many tactically inept managers have you seen get 2 top 4 finishes, 2nd and EL final?

Regardless of how good Ten Hag is or isn't, his time will be judged same way as other managers, trophies.

Ole was a failure as he didn't deliver one.
 
LInkash said:
If City get stripped of their titles, how would the change people's perception of Ole as a manager and as a legend overall?
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I don’t think his time as a player will ever be diminished. Should be seen as Separate from his management career.

IF ole had won that EL final it may have bought him some more time

but ultimately I am glad we are were we are now. ETH is the perfect fit
 
golden_blunder said:
I don’t think his time as a player will ever be diminished. Should be seen as Separate from his management career.

IF ole had won that EL final it may have bought him some more time

but ultimately I am glad we are were we are now. ETH is the perfect fit
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I don't think that winning the EL would have bought him any time. He was always going to get last season to mount a title challenge. The fact that we crumbled so hard was something that was always coming.

Regardless of results, whoever watched the games knew that we kept getting outplayed by almost every opposition.
 
romufc said:
I don't think that winning the EL would have bought him any time. He was always going to get last season to mount a title challenge. The fact that we crumbled so hard was something that was always coming.

Regardless of results, whoever watched the games knew that we kept getting outplayed by almost every opposition.
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I just wonder IF they had won that cup, what would a big dose of confidence done to that team?

instead they collapsed like you say, but multiple points that contribute to that in my opinion, lack of leaders on the field, Ronaldo effect, stress on an inexperienced management and coaching team.

anyway it’s all over and I’m happy where United are going
 
Zen86 said:
The toxic atmosphere arrived and departed with Ronaldo, funnily enough.
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An indisputable point. Still, Ole wasn’t up to the job, but it is no doubt true Ronaldo‘s return created a toxic atmosphere, which disappeared after his departure.
 
LInkash said:
If City get stripped of their titles, how would the change people's perception of Ole as a manager and as a legend overall?
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Will be like Raineri after that Leicester championship: A fairy tale for an underdog manager. But that does not make him an elite manager (Just like Raineri).
 
lex talionis said:
An indisputable point. Still, Ole wasn’t up to the job, but it is no doubt true Ronaldo‘s return created a toxic atmosphere, which disappeared after his departure.
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He wasn't. Ole is guilty of plenty of things, creating the toxic atmosphere that surrounded the club last season is not one of them, however.
 
Zen86 said:
He wasn't. Ole is guilty of plenty of things, creating the toxic atmosphere that surrounded the club last season is not one of them, however.
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Ole didn’t create it, but he had the fault of letting that toxicity manifest itself. Its deep root stem from our players's entitlement and lack of discipline, thinking they have all done it. If Jose took the blame for toxicity, Ole took the blame for complacency.
 
bond19821982 said:
Fergie left the field 10 years back. Standards have been rewritten since. Seriously, can't believe this has to be explained again. The average championship points is now 90-95 . Gone are the days where 75 points gets you the title. Seriously mate ?
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SAF was regularly hitting 89 points in his last 3/4 seasons
 
Sir Erik ten Hag said:
Ole didn’t create it, but he had the fault of letting that toxicity manifest itself. Its deep root stem from our players's entitlement and lack of discipline, thinking they have all done it. If Jose took the blame for toxicity, Ole took the blame for complacency.
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Did he? There wasn't any notable toxicity at the club prior to last season when Ronaldo arrived and the season fell apart. Beyond that we had some disruptive players in the dressing room who were shipped out. There's a bit of revisionism going on.
 
cyberman said:
SAF was regularly hitting 89 points in his last 3/4 seasons
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And that’s sometimes with the foot off the pedal (ie the league was wrapped up) and we were focusing on other competitions.
 
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