Let’s get a few things straight. Solskjaer changed the way the players felt, he put a smile back on their faces and they responded to him. We saw that for the first 10 or so games.
But I could have done exactly that because I also knew what the issues were. Steve Bruce, Mark Hughes and Roy Keane would have done it as well because they were at the club even longer than Ole.
I think the board and the fans got a little bit caught up in the hype because of results in the first 10 games but I always thought they shouldn’t have rushed into to giving him the job full time.
It was the win against Paris Saint-Germain that sealed it but that was an extremely lucky result. Gianluigi Buffon made two mistakes to gift them two goals and then we had the dodgy penalty decision.
He might have still got the job even if they got knocked out by PSG because the league form was so good but I still believe the decision was made far too quickly.
Why did they give it to him when he was happy himself to be the interim manager until the end of the season? We ended up giving the job to a manager who was unsuccessful at Cardiff! I know he went back to Norway with Molde and did well but does that really qualify him for the biggest job in the world? I don’t think so.
An upturn in results was inevitable no matter who came in – they just needed someone to go in there who knew the club like we knew the club and change the way the players felt. The fixtures at the time worked in their favour too.
When Ole came in they played Cardiff, Huddersfield and Bournemouth in his first three games. The only hard game they had was Tottenham away when they won 1-0 but got absolutely battered in the second half and should probably have conceded six.
Mauricio Pochettino would have been perfect but we’ve moved on and we have to stick with Ole now. The time to bring Pochettino has gone and Ed Woodward needs to come out and give his manager a public show of support.
I want to hear him come out and say they’ve got a long-term plan, a project over the next few transfer windows and that Ole is going to be the manager going forward. If he does that, at least all the fans will know where they stand.
I know Ole is under pressure and people are already talking about who might replace him but I would never tell a club to sack a manager because I’ve been on the other end of it at Blackburn.
Other people talk about managers who could replace you and it’s not a nice feeling at all. If United are going to stick with him, then they need to come out and tell us exactly that.
Man United 4/1, Draw 11/4, Liverpool 4/6