A former Manchester United manager has opened up about his feelings after a meeting with the club’s management.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has spoken out about the shock he felt when he learned that he was dismissed as Manchester United manager.
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The former United boss took over the helm at Old Trafford in December 2018, as a substitute after José Mourinho left the club. He was then given a permanent position in March 2019, following a series of good results – a position he retained until he was fired in November 2021.
Solskjaer, who played for United for eleven years, led a summer of significant spending in his last transfer window. That’s when Cristiano Ronaldo made a sensational return to Manchester.
The signing of Jadon Sancho for £72 million sparked excitement among fans, and Real Madrid defender Raphaël Varane was brought in after a decade in Spain. United started the 2021/22 season strongly, winning four of their first five Premier League games.
But things started to go wrong for Solskjaer as United lost five of their next seven games, leaving them down in seventh place. A crushing 4-1 defeat to Watford proved to be the last straw for the Norwegian, and his dismissal was announced the following day.
Reflecting on his abrupt departure from Manchester four years later, Solskjaer told the BBC that while the dismissal was justified, it did little to ease the disappointment he experienced when he was told of the dismissal.
Speaking to Kelly Somers, the 52-year-old reflected on his time at Old Trafford: “That pressure is a privilege because I was allowed to do it and I was allowed to deal with it my way. And it was [by] having great employees around us.”
“The environment in and around the club was very positive. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you like to come to work every day – you need results. Unfortunately, we had a very bad six-week period, and that’s too long at a club like Manchester United, and they made a change, which is fine.”
“It was sad. We lost to Watford, of course, and I knew this was more or less the end. [I] drove my family to the airport, they actually went back to Norway, and I was going to work. I got a text: ‘Ole, I need to see you in my office,’ and I knew what was going to happen, so I called my wife right away.”
“‘I’ll come back, I’ll catch up with you,’ I said. I think it was abrupt, but not surprising. If you don’t get results, you make a change in football, but I felt like we had something going on.'”
Accepting the United position represents a daunting challenge at any time, especially for someone like Solskjaer, who had never managed in England’s top division before taking the job.
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But even for the most experienced managers, the position proved to be overwhelmingly demanding, the Norwegian admitted. In the BBC interview, he revealed that during a match between the teams, the then Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti confided that he would not have seen himself in the United job.
With a CV that includes Juventus, AC Milan, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, the Italian’s statement was quite significant. Solskjaer recalled: “I remember one game – Everton. I was standing there in my technical area.”
“Carlo Ancelotti is coming over, so he’s more or less in my technical area. The fourth referee says, ‘Carlo, you have to go back to your technical area, unless you want Ole’s job.’ And he said, ‘No, no, no, too much pressure.'”
“‘That job has too much pressure’. You know pressure is a privilege, he’s always said that too, and I felt privileged to be the manager of Manchester United. But of course, you’re the face of everyone, everything that surrounds Manchester United.”
