Four Four Two Presents - The Managers - UK - Issue 01 (2021)

Sunderland (H)
Premier League, December 1996
A 5-0 win more famous for one of two Eric Cantona
goals, but Ole wasn’t to be outdone, running from the
halfway line before slotting the ball past Lionel Perez.

Chelsea (H)

Premier League, September 1997

Solskjaer brings down a David Beckham cross

and delightfully curls the ball into the top corner

of the Stretford End goal to salvage a 2-2 draw.

Liverpool (H)

FA Cup, January 1999

United score twice in the last two minutes with the

winner from Solskjaer (sounds familiar) to knock out

their great rivals and remain on course for the Treble.

sacked, because you’re more employable

after being sacked in football than before.

People don’t think that in England, and

they’re wrong.

“Jupp Heynckes was sacked twice during

his career and ended up winning the treble

with Bayern Munich. In England, if you get

sacked as a young manager you soon get

written off. People said Ole wouldn’t make it

after getting relegated at Cardiff, but he’s

back – albeit with some good fortune.”

After calling time on his Old Trafford career

and playing a testimonial against Espanyol

in 2008, he managed the reserves but that

proved the glass ceiling. He was never going

little forgotten about, a little failed in the
eyes of the British public after his stint at
Cardiff in 2014.
Neville doesn’t think his difficulties in
Cardiff were a disaster, though. “It was
the best thing that happened to Ole as it
will have prepared him for this,” says the
former full-back.
“If he hadn’t had that, Manchester United
would have been very difficult for him. It
went so badly wrong and he was written
off, but it was better for him to make the
mistakes there and even for him to be

to be promoted like Pep Guardiola at Barça,

because Ferguson was going nowhere.

Players liked Solskjaer, and coaches liked

him too. A small band of supporters were a

little put out when he didn’t hand out free

match tickets like some of his predecessors,

but Ole – correctly – said it wasn’t the United

manager’s job to do that.

He left United for Molde in November

2010 and what he did there is instructive.

“Molde was seen as a nearly team,”

explains former Norway team-mate Jan

Aage Fjortoft. “They had a culture of

finishing 2nd (usually behind Rosenborg)

but he renovated the whole club. He built

Molde like a mini Man United. He recruited

OLE’S GREATEST HITS

104 The Managers FourFourTwo.com