I’ve been intrigued to see the reaction to Manchester United’s win against Spurs at the weekend, with lots of supporters and pundits already making a case for why Ole Gunnar Solskjær should be given the job full-time. Prior to the Spurs game, many said “Manchester United haven’t played anyone yet” but the Norwegian quickly showed how far his side have come in defeating a title-challenging Tottenham team.
It’s been no secret that Solskjær was appointed on an interim basis but if an interim manager does really well should it always follow that he becomes appointed permanently? Of course, Solskjær more than deserves to be considered but I believe that the decision of the board to appoint the next Manchester United manager cannot be made based on emotion and short-term feelgood nostalgia of a former player taking the team back to the “good old days”. Rather the board need to make a decision with a three- to five-year strategy in mind where United can challenge for the Premier League and Champions League every season.
For me, more importantly than looking at the great results now, the board should be asking: “Can Solskjær lead the team to win the Champions League in the future?” I think if you asked many United fans this question now, many would be unsure. In comparison, if you asked the same hypothetical question, if a candidate such as Zinedine Zidane was appointed in his first role after winning three consecutive Champions League titles at Real Madrid, there would be more certainty among United fans.
All of Solskjær’s rhetoric so far has been about bringing the good days back to Old Trafford. It is all very romantic and nostalgic but this could possibly blind the United board from making a decision in looking forward rather than constantly looking back. In many games the TV cameras are panning to Sir Alex Ferguson every few minutes and, for me, this represents looking into the past rather than the future.
I understand that there is an entrenched playing philosophy that brought unprecedented success to the club. To this extent I agree with Gary Neville’s comments this week that the philosophy at United is crucial but I disagree that no one should be allowed to shape their own version of it. The beauty of football is that there are several ways to win, so to give Solskjær the job on the basis of replicating what has been successfully done in the past could prevent a successful evolution that United may need.
There have been some reports that Ferguson has been back at the training ground this week and I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually has an influence in picking the team. He retired six years ago so at what point is the club going to move on and say: “We need to create a new history?” I understand why there is so much nostalgia with Solskjær because things became very toxic under José Mourinho and it was also hard under David Moyes and Louis van Gaal but I think that a long-term strategy based on nostalgia is a recipe for disappointment.
Perhaps I am influenced by philosophies like the one at Chelsea which was “If it isn’t broken, change it” which saw us win three league titles in five years playing three different formations and tactical strategies so that the opposition could never keep up with our evolution at the time.
Solskjær is an inexperienced manager who has become the first person to win his first six games at Manchester United. It’s an incredible achievement. However is that really enough to give him one of the biggest jobs in the world at a time when the club really need to make a “head” rather than “heart” decision? After you’re dating someone for a few weeks, you often don’t become exclusive until you give yourself more time to know what a relationship could be like in the future. You can’t get too excited too quickly.
Zidane immediately springs to mind as an alternative because he has the experience of managing at a global club, having come through the system at Real Madrid coaching younger players.
Zidane had to earn the right to manage the first team and players such as Cristiano Ronaldo respected him. You cannot underestimate Zidane’s achievement of winning the Champions League three times in a row – it must have taken superb skills to motivate the likes of Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema et al to have the desire to become serial Champions League winners.
I can’t see that achievement happening again so Zidane should be considered as one of the greatest managers in modern times. The only question is whether Zidane would really want the United job. We’ll have to see whether he has got the desire to step back into management at this stage.
On a positive note, it goes to show how important it has been for Solskjær to give the Manchester United players freedom to express themselves. Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford are both thriving because they have been given a licence to express their ability. I understand how key this can be to performance. Towards the end of last year, I hadn’t scored for a few matches which got me overthinking, which is never good for strikers. My coach, Rita Guarino, came up to me and said: ‘Eni – don’t think too much. Just play like you’re in the park.’ It may sound trivial and small but I let go of all the unnecessary thoughts that were in the way of me going out and playing with freedom. I ended up scoring my second hat-trick for Juventus in that game and it was amazing how those few words helped. I can imagine the same effect applies to Rashford with Solskjær.
It’s going to be really interesting to see what happens at United over the next few months. After all, Roberto Di Matteo ended up winning the Champions League for Chelsea when he took over as interim manager so what will be the measure for Solskjær now? If he wins a cup and gets ManchesterUnited into the top four, does he deserve the job full-time?