It can’t be easy being Ole Gunnar Solskjaer these days at Manchester United, because no matter what you do, it’s never good enough.
Asked to take over his beloved club on an interim basis, the Norwegian turned things around quickly and efficiently through no fault of his own, which led to an understandable contract, turning his temporary deal into a permanent one.
Since then, however, it’s been a series of ups and downs, while other big name managers, such as Mauricio Pochettino and Massimiliano Allegri live out their days without a job, with many believing they would be better suited for the Old Trafford throne.
Alfredo Pedullà, writing in a column for Gazzetta dello Sport, is one of those, as the Italian journalist looks at Solskjaer’s reign at the helm of the English giant, using the recent Champions League exit as his muse.
Regardless of how you look at it, Manchester United’s exit from the competition is a failure, especially when taking into account the loss against Istanbul Basaksehir, but it’s the vast spending the club has done since Sir Alex Ferguson left that is put under the microscope here.
Between 2013 and 2018, the Premier League side spent close to €900m, with a few hundred more added on since then, starting when the great Scot retired, which led to, ‘from that moment on, an endless agony, bad investments, burned coaches, contradicting decisions and management far from the level expected at such a prestigious club’.
Take the purchase of Pogba, with over €100m spent on a player they let go for free and which has been anything but the fairytale many hoped for when he was unveiled to that Stormzy song with the catchy #Pogback hashtag.
While most want to forget the Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alexis Sánchez investments, Pedullà rams them down his reader’s throat, reminding them they both left on frees, having cost the club of lot of money along the way.
For him, and potentially many around the world, Solskjaer, a legend in his own right as a player, ‘has proven to be a normal manager in a context that needs a decision maker to avoid wasting huge budgets’.
That’s where someone like Allegri or Pochettino would do a better job, according to Pedullà, as only with managers of their ilk ‘will Manchester United be able to return that logical thread that doesn’t turn every staff into a collection of stickers’.
As things stand, one of the two managers is needed ‘with some urgency and without too much procrastinating’, in order to provide a ‘safe guide’ for the club, one ‘who justifies large investments on the market without them flopping one after the other’.
Allegri and Pochettino are seen as the ‘perfect synthesis’ with the Premier League giant, and perhaps, at least in Pedullà’s eyes, it’s time Ed Woodward realises that too, regardless of what Solskjaer means to Manchester United.
