Ole’s reign My perspective by Robert Mizzi
I
am writing this article on the morning after Michael Carrick has ended his short stint as interim manager (much to disdain of the editor who keeps receiving my articles late!) As all readers would surely know, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Manchester United decided to part ways following a terrible run of results that, in all honesty no modern-day football manager could have survived. All of us United supporters will forever consider Ole as a legend despite this setback. The reality is that none of us old enough to remember him as a player can be totally impartial when trying to assess his tenure as Manchester United manager. To us who were around in 1999, the famous words “and Solskjaer has won it” will forever reverberate in our minds and dare I say, souls. I still get goosebumps when I see the videos! So I will try very hard to make an objective evaluation of his stint as a United manager and give my two pennies’ worth of what in my opinion went wrong. There is no doubt that based on his stint as interim manager, Ole fully deserved his chance to be a permanent manager. As caretaker manager, Solskjær was the first Manchester United manager to win his first five league games in charge since Sir Matt Busby in 1946. He brought back stability in the dressing room and with him as interim manager, we went on a fantastic run of results, winning 14 of his first 19 matches in charge. On 28 March 2019, Solskjær signed a threeyear contract to take over as Manchester United
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manager on a permanent basis. The timing of his permanent appointment was, in my opinion, not ideal and thing started going awry straight away after his appointment as United won only 2 of 10 matches for the rest of the season. Some would argue, yet another in the catalogue of errors by the top management of the club. Why they did not wait till the end of the season to make the appointment is still something that baffles me. Would it have made a difference? We will never know, of course, but it seemed illogical and ill-timed at that point. It still does, in fact! A 4–0 league defeat away to Everton in April 2019 practically reduced Ole to tears as he realised that the honeymoon was over, and he had a mammoth task in front of him. The following season, his first full season in charge, started the 2019–20 season with 10 points from their first 9 games, their worst start to a league campaign in 33 years (since the 198687 season). Ole was clearly struggling and one could actually argue that his job was saved by the arrival of Bruno Fernandes halfway through the season. In fact, United went unbeaten for the rest of the Premier League season, with 32 points from 14 games since February 2021, more than any other club in that period. United finished the season with 66 points in the Premier League, equal to the previous season’s points tally, but in third place instead of sixth. Despite claiming that finishing third was a ‘massive achievement’, Ole finished 33 points behind the league winners (no need to elaborate further who they were) and it was evident that United were in dire need of
rebuilding to challenge the top teams. Simply relying on Bruno Fernandes carrying the team was not going to work. Season 2020-21 did not start too well. We had to witness United’s joint heaviest defeat in the Premier League, a 6–1 home loss to Tottenham Hotspur, which Ole claimed was the worst day of his managerial career. It got worse before it got any better, in fact. United failed to qualify to the knock-out stages of the Champions League despite beating PSG 2-1 and RB Leipzig 5-0 early in the group stage. Our league form improved after the humiliating relegation to the Europa League and following a 1-0 away win to Burnley in the 12 January 2021, United claimed the top spot in the EPL with 18 matches played. This was the first time United had been in pole position after the New Year since the 2012–13 season when we went on to win what, to date, is the last EPL title won. A certain SAF was in charge back then! United struggled to keep the momentum and started dropping points and the season ended with United claiming 2nd place with 77 points. Although many supporters considered this as a positive season, that feeling was somewhat diluted due to the fact that we could not offer a challenge to the runaway leaders, and more importantly, due to the defeat to Villarreal in the Europa League final. I truly believe that this could have been a turning point for Ole and his coaching team. Had he brought home the Europa League, it would have given the club, and above all the manager, a massive boost. Having reached his first final after four successive semi-final
