O
le Gunnar Solskjaer
had just been informed
that he was Barclays
Manager of the Month
for January 2019 after
six weeks in the job, the
first United manager
since Alex Ferguson
seven years previous
to do so. The
Norwegian’s response
was typical. “No, my
team have won it.”
When the Premier
League asked for an
image of him receiving
the award, Solskjaer
insisted on including his
five assistants: Mick
Phelan, Michael Carrick,
Emiliano Alvarez, Mark Dempsey and Kieran
McKenna. That’s the picture Manchester
United’s official website used, even if the
mainstream media didn’t. United, Solskjaer
maintained, was always about more than
one individual. It didn’t always feel that way
before he took over.
It’s Solskjaer’s way to downplay his impact
and that self-deprecation has made him
loved – so much so that the chants about
him from the stands outnumber those for
any player. But time-served United staff
have never seen a manager pay so much
attention to detail. They have been
astounded that a man on a five-month
caretaker’s contract asked so many
questions about any area which he felt could
improve the club. He asked players for their
opinions on everything from the food to the
travel. He asked them what could be done
better and how he could help them. He
asked about promising young players and
coaches. Even when two fans who’d been
drivers at the club 15 years ago requested to
see Solskjaer, he spent an hour with them
and gauged the mood among the
supporters. But it was what he did with the
players that has made all the difference
since his arrival.
“He spoke to them player to player,” one
senior club source tells FourFourTwo. “If any
player needed an arm around them – and
some of them did – then they got it. His man
management is exceptional.”
But don’t get the idea that Solskjaer is a
soft touch. The dressing room has felt his
anger at half-time all right, and it’s no Fergie
hairdryer treatment. The club source
revealed that after two or three minutes,
he’s moved on “and he doesn’t kill anyone.
His criticism is constructive. Then he looks
forward in a positive manner, he always
looks forward. The players like it, they like
him and they also feel that they have
freedom on the pitch.”
Midfielder Ander Herrera agrees. “Ole
can be very direct with players at half-time,
but never in a negative way,” he explains.
“Even when he criticises us he uses the
positive things that we’ve done. He only
wants to see us improve. We’re happy
with him.”Ole is quiet on a day-to-day basis. Herrera
says he doesn’t feel the need to attend every
training session, missing the odd one or two,
“but he’s fine to leave them to Michael
Carrick and Kieran McKenna. They make a
good team for the daily work. They get on
well, personally and professionally.” And
there are some other benefits to keeping
some distance.
“We know that when Ole speaks to us, it’s
because he has something important to tell
us. That information goes straight into our
heads because he’s not giving us
information every single day.
“We also have Mike Phelan, who is like Ole
and only gives information when he has to.”
In Solskjaer, Phelan and Carrick, United
have three former players with more than 45
years combined service at the club who have
seen United win everything, as well as the
dismal post-Ferguson decline.
They wanted the current players to know
what a privilege it was for them to wear the
red shirt. Solskjaer is big on that too, as you’d
expect from an ex-United star, stressing that
they should never let the fans down, that
they must show him why they deserve to
wear that shirt. He says it a lot. And it’s
working wonders.Off the pitch, Solskjaer is not just keeping
things ticking over. He questions everything,
wanting to know why things are now done
a certain way when it wasn’t past practice.
Much has changed since he left at the start
of 2011, with five managers and many
comings and goings at executive level. He
isn’t willing to turn a blind eye when he
thinks something is going on which isn’t the
United way.
For one, some former players were wary of
going to the club’s Carrington training
ground. Perhaps they were right to be so
since many of them had been critical of Jose
Mourinho in the media, but when Rio
Ferdinand asked if it was OK to bring his kids
to the training ground, Solskjaer was
incredulous that he’d even had to ask.
Likewise Nemanja Vidic, a player who hadn’t
been too critical and one now working as a
Red Devils ambassador, was told that he
should never ask to come back to the club
he had served so well.
Other familiar faces are back at Old
Trafford too, none more so than Mike Phelan,
so long the yin to Ferguson’s yang. As well as
being a coach and a former utility man
prepared to play anywhere his managerasked, Phelan worked as a buffer between
Ferguson and the commercial demands
from the club. He still does that now,
but suggestions of Ferguson pulling
Solskjaer’s strings behind the scenes have
been overplayed.
Fergie, back in rude health, also now
feels the training ground is open to him,
and Oleis pleased he can always speak to
the man he considers to be the greatest
gaffer still alive. He would be foolish not to,
although these conversations don’t take
place daily.
Solskjaer will often speak to Ferguson
beneath the main stand after a match, in
between his interviews with rights holders
and meeting the written press. That’s when
he’s finished posing for the endless selfies
he never refuses with fans.
Unlike previous United bosses, he has
no issues doing press conferences and
speaking to the media. After one reporter
thanked him for starting one press
conference at 9.30am since it allowed
him to drop his daughter off at school,
Solskjaer changed the start time. Previously,
briefings had been an hour earlier because
Solskjaer, like Ferguson, likes to start early.
When the 46-year-old speaks he does so inMOLDE WERE A nEARLY TEAM WITH A
CULTURE OF FInISHInG SECOnD –
SOLSKJAER REnOVATED THE WHOLE
CLUB AnD BUILT A MInI MAn UnITED
100 The Managers FourFourTwo.comOLE GUnnA R
SOLSKJAER