Despite recent turbulence, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been transparent about his time at Manchester United, including how the purchase of Cristiano Ronaldo “felt so right but ended up wrong.” This shows why Erik ten Hag is a better choice to lead the club.
In an interview with The Athletic, Solskjaer, who was fired by United over two years ago amid a decline in results and performances, said that when things went bad, “certain players and egos came out.”
The United great managed the team for just under three years, but he was unable to win any trophies or resolve the troubles in the locker room that appeared in his final few months at Old Trafford.
Ten Hag, meantime, made the hard decision to bench Ronaldo as one of his first moves after being hired last summer. It was a difficult call, but it ultimately improved the team’s fortunes and resulted in a trophy during his inaugural season.
To properly enforce his own brand of discipline on the team, Solskjaer may have had too many emotional attachments to United and stars like Ronaldo. He even implied that he made the decision to recruit the Portuguese international with his heart rather than his mind.
Ten Hag has proven a polarising figure this season but the Dutchman has always made decisions for the best of the team and Solskjaer words should prove to United why they need to keep faith with their current manager through the tough periods.
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Solskjaer stated that his goal at the club was “to get fans smiling again.” This was an admirable goal, and he made progress toward it throughout his tenure, but it did not have a permanent impact.
It’s possible that Solskjaer’s determination to pursue with obvious problems like Ronaldo, who supplied a big supply of goals but frequently to the expense of the team cohesion, played a role in why things soured under him.
When Solskjaer said that some players “were not as good as their own perception of themselves,” it was a reasonable assessment—if only there had been more effort made to get rid of these individuals than there was under his successor.
United’s consistent issue is one of culture as much as quality and Ten Hag has made continuous attempts to instil his discipline into the squad, even if it leaves expensive recruits such as Jadon Sancho out in the cold.
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The former Ajax boss proved his credentials as a coach last season and deserves support from the club and supporters to continue making the tough calls, even if results have suffered in the short-term, in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of managers past.
