WHEN Manchester United replaced Jose Mourinho with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer just over a year ago, what exactly was the grand plan?
If it was to duke it out with Sheffield United and Wolves for Europa League qualification, then congratulations Ed Woodward, here’s your performance bonus.
Man Utrd have made no obvious improvement under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer since axing predecessor Jose Mourinho in December 2018
But if the self-styled world’s biggest club envisaged slightly more than that, maybe it’s not time to break out the cigars.
Mourinho was sacked in December 2018 because his team were 19 points behind the Premier League leaders and the football was awful.
Now they are 27 POINTS adrift of leaders Liverpool and stinking the place out on an almost weekly basis.
Solskjaer described the first half of Tuesday’s Carabao Cup defeat by Manchester City as their worst display since he was appointed manager.
SO GODDAMED ORDINARY
That’s quite some claim when you consider all the contenders for that dubious honour.
Because with Ole at the wheel, United are kangaroo-hopping along the hard shoulder with the hazard warning lights flashing.
He has been responsible for more horror shows than Vincent Price in the past nine months, losing to (deep breath) Everton, City, Cardiff, Crystal Palace, West Ham, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Watford and Arsenal.
City and maybe Arsenal aside, that’s not exactly a Who’s Who of Premier League aristocracy.
Man Utd were dreadful under Jose Mourinho – and now Mauricio Pochettino is seemingly waiting in the wings if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is axedCredit: AFP or licensors
Yet United are now so goddamned ordinary that every new setback is met with little more than a resigned shrug of the shoulders from the Old Trafford directors’ box.
No wonder tomorrow’s trip to rock-bottom Norwich is being viewed with such trepidation.
It’s not as if Solskjaer has been denied backing in the transfer market to make his team more competitive.
Last summer alone United spent £145million to buy Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Daniel James.
But they have made little impact on a side now apparently holed below the waterline by the absence of midfielder Scott McTominay.
And you really know you have problems when Fred is your leading contender for player of the year.
When Erling Haaland chose Borussia Dortmund over United last week, the Old Trafford spin doctors were frantically briefing that they pulled out of the deal because of the agent’s demands.
Strangely, there was no mention of the fact they were happy to negotiate with Mino Raiola when signing Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Nor did they even allow for the possibility that Haaland didn’t fancy having Jesse Lingard and Andreas Pereira as his midfield supply line.
Even Solskjaer knows Pochettino is Man Utd’s next manager… so what is Woodward waiting for?
SAD ADMISSION
Yet still there are plenty of people around the club who cannot wait to see the back of Pogba — their only creative player.
The fragile Frenchman has played in just a quarter of United’s games this season and is now recovering from an ankle operation which Solskjaer was not convinced he needed.
But instead of questioning Pogba’s commitment, United should be doing everything in their powers to get him feeling wanted again.
Selling him off to the highest bidder would be a sad admission they no longer know how to get the best out of world-class talent.
And a fit and firing Pogba definitely falls into that category — no matter what colour he dyes his hair.
Solskjaer hasn’t had the chance to tap into that quality on a regular basis and it seems increasingly likely that he never will.
Like one of Dracula’s victims, the Norwegian looked as though the lifeblood had been sucked out of him as he dissected Tuesday’s 3-1 semi-final first-leg loss to City.
He arrived in the job as a fresh-faced optimist — yet now has the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Maybe Solskjaer will be allowed to limp along until the end of the season before getting the discreet tap on the shoulder from Woodward.
But a club of United’s size and ambitions should be aiming for so much more than this.
They seem to assume that Mauricio Pochettino will come running to the rescue as soon as they snap their fingers.
But the further they fall, the less attractive they will become to the former Tottenham coach.
Manchester United may remain one of the richest clubs in the world — but all the money in the world won’t protect them from football irrelevance.
So they cannot afford to hang around for too much longer before reaching for the reboot button.
CUP FARCE
JUST one year in the Premier League and it’s £100million guaranteed.
Win the FA Cup and you get £3.6m. The Carabao Cup? A measly £100,000.
Yet people still wonder why the domestic cup competitions are treated with such contempt.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
