Image
PA; Getty Images (opposite page)
a key player, required treatment. Mourinho
insisted that he travelled to Los Angeles for
the pre-season camp, then Matic was sent
across America for treatment a few days
later. The Red Devils missed an in-form Matic
early on in the campaign.
The request to recruit Harry Maguire late in
the transfer window, when he’d previously
not identified the Leicester defender as a
target, irritated the club. Not least as
Mourinho had overseen the acquisitions of
two £30 million centre-backs in Victor
Lindelof and Eric Bailly. The Foxes didn’t need
to sell one of England’s World Cup heroes
and said no.
Mourinho kicked off the current season
with a star-studded squad of footballers
who were so afraid of making a mistake
that they played within themselves. They
felt the manager was focusing on the
opponent’s threats first before highlighting
their own strengths.Not being Jose Mourinho was the biggest
edge Ole had in his first month back at a
club he’d served with distinction as a player
between 1996-2007, winning six Premier
League titles and the Champions League,
and as manager of the reserves until 2011.
The subsequent honeymoon period has
been a long one. Solskjaer is different from
Mourinho. He believes instinct is important
and he fills his players with confidence,
telling them that it’s acceptable to make
mistakes. Players loved it when he told the
full-backs he wanted them high and wide.
They also love it that he doesn’t over-
celebrate any victory – the comeback at Paris
Saint-Germain excepted, understandable
given it was among the most incredible wins
in the club’s storied history – and doesn’t
make himself the centre of attention, instead
moving quickly onto the next game.
“We’ve also kept the focus on every single
game that we’ve played,” says Herrera, one of
many players who has seen an uplift in form.
“As soon as we think we’re an amazing team,
we’re going to start losing. We know that we
have to be at our best in every single game.”
United’s players like having a coaching
team that Solskjaer actually listens to. Gary
Neville has his own take on that, shared
with FFT from a bench inside the Parc de
Princes before the Champions League last
16 second leg.
“There’s a very interesting dynamic on the
Manchester United bench now,” he says.
“Ole stands in a group of three, four of five. I
said this to Bryan Robson and he said Ole
listens to all his staff. That’s good when
you’re winning, but when you’re losing I
wonder if there can be too many voices.”
The unity between the players and
coaches is clear and contrasted with
Mourinho, who’d often stand alone by the
side of the pitch, with regular visits from
long-time assistant Rui Faria. When Faria
departed at the end of last season, Mourinho
lost his main foil, but he was always the big
name on the big salary. He didn’t even want
the names of any of his staff to be listed on
the club’s website. It was all about him.Yet Mourinho is one of the most successful
coaches in world football, a man idolised in
his native Portugal. Solskjaer was a risky,
rookie replacement. Gary Neville has no
doubts why he was appointed.
“Ole got the job because he was a safe
pair of hands,” says Neville. “He was trusted
and reliable. He could be manipulated in
that he wouldn’t have caused any problems
had he been let go with thanks at the end of
the season. He was brought in from Molde
for all the right reasons.”United are looking for a sporting director,
someone to work alongside the manager
and executive vice chairman Ed Woodward.
Mourinho, unsurprisingly, wasn’t a fan of
this idea, but Woodward and Solskjaer get
on well.
“They have to bring in a sporting director,”
adds Neville. “They have to support Ole with
the right people around him recruitment-
wise. If they don’t bring the right players in,
then Ole is dead. The best managers in
the world have been at this club over
the last few years, and they’ve failed
in part because the recruitment
has been poor. Recruitment, the
medical department and the
sport science department all
need to be right.”
Names like Zinedine Zidane or
Massimiliano Allegri came up
when Mourinho looked on the way
out. Solskjaer, meanwhile, was
managing Norwegian side Molde, aWhile Ole Gunnar Solskjaer becoming
a Premier League boss surprised some
he played with, others who knew him
well always felt he had what it takes.
“I was the captain of the national team
when Ole Gunnar joined us,” says former
Premier League striker Jan Age Fjortoft.
“We played in Northern Ireland, he was
a sub and he said to me, ‘Jan, when you
are out there I’ll follow your movements
and learn from you.’ I thought he was
taking the piss, but he wasn’t joking and
when he joined Man United, I realised this
attitude made him the perfect sub. It has
made him a really good manager, too.”
The Norwegian played flight simulation
games on the coach with his
compatriots, Henning Berg and Ronnie
Johnsen, while the rest of the United
squad played cards, listened to music or
just messed around.
Fjortoft, who said on the record in 2011
that Solskjaer would one-day manage
the Red Devils, adds, “When you’re
playing, the ones you think are going to
be leaders in the future seldom turn out
that way. We both played for a tactically
orientated Norway team. Ole Gunnar’s
influences included Age Hareide, his boss
at Molde and now the national coach of
Denmark. Egil Olsen, a former manager
of Norway, was another, as he made all
the players tactically-minded – we had
to be, as we were seldom favourites for
matches. Of course, he watched training
very carefully under Alex Ferguson, too. If
you are going to learn from anybody,
learn from him.”“I Kn EW OLE
HAD IT In HIM”
Above “And
Solskjaer has won it”
Below Time was up
for Jose after
December’s 3-1
defeat at Liverpool
Jan Age FjortoftSOLSKJAER WILL OFTEn SPEAK
WITH FERGUSOn BEn EATH THE
MAIn STAn D AFTER A MATCH
102 The Managers FourFourTwo.comOLE GUnnA R
SOLSKJAER