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

As Wes Brown, who played against his

Cardiff side for Sunderland, puts it succinctly,

“He was trying things that weren’t going to

come off.”

Fabio’s wife Barbara remembers a sincere

man. “He was very honest with us even

when he didn’t need to be,” she says. “I felt

that he had our family in his mind and not

just Fabio, as he knew families with young

children can’t just move around easily.”

The full-back stayed in South Wales for two

and a half years and enjoyed it, but Solskjaer

returned to Norway under the accusation

that he should never have gone to Cardiff.

In October 2015, Ole returned to the Molde

dugout. There’s an old football adage that

you should never go back, which the

Norwegian only partly proved wrong.

“There were big expectations that he could

repeat the success from his first spell,” says

Jan Aage Fjortoft. “He had a few setbacks

and didn’t quite copy it, but he adjusted back

to life in a small town and at a smaller club.

“Charles Darwin said it wasn’t the

strongest who survives but the ones who

adjust, and Ole Gunnar adjusts.”

On December 16, 2018, Mourinho was

sacked after a 3-1 loss at Liverpool, one

Herrera counts as his worst moment at

Above Ole made

himself the No.1 pick

for the full-time role

United. “It wasn’t the result – you can always

lose – but the way we lost,” he says. “We let

our fans down.”

The Portuguese was a dead man walking. In

United’s team hotel – the aptly named Titanic

• the night before the game against Liverpool,
  his coaches were surprised when they weren’t
  informed the manager had held one-on-one
  meetings with his players.
  Solskjaer’s unexpected appointment had an
  immediate impact, even before a ball had been
  kicked. He attended a staff Christmas party as
  soon as he arrived back in Manchester, where
  younger members serenaded Ole with, ‘Who
  put the ball in the Germans’ net?’ before he
  said a few words on the stage at Lancashire
  Cricket Club. He’d been told by Ed Woodward
  to get people smiling again. It was no problem.
  No song has been sung more than ‘Ole’s at the
  wheel’ to The Stone Roses’ Waterfall, though
  that song did start out as ‘Jose’s at the wheel’.
  His first game was against his former club in
  the Welsh capital. This writer stood outside the
  away end for two hours before the match as
  jubilant fans bounced into Cardiff City Stadium
  singing songs about Solskjaer. He had that hero
  identity, something the fans could latch onto.
  United triumphed 5-1, the first time in the
  post-Ferguson era that they’d scored five goals
  in a league game. The buzz that started that

OLE’S ALLIES

NEMANJA VIDIC

NEW AMBASSADOR

RIO FERDINAND

WELCOMED BACK

GARY NEVILLE

“OLE IS TRUSTED AND RELIABLE”

ALEX FERGUSON

POST-MATCH CHATS

MIKE PHELAN

CORPORATE BUFFER

BRYAN ROBSON

“OLE LISTENS TO ALL HIS STAFF”

106 The Managers FourFourTwo.com

OLE GUnnA R

SOLSKJAER