The British broadcaster is clearly impressed after his meeting with Norwegian manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær. The BBC starts the interview as follows:
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer comes in as easy and relaxed as the bright summer room Beşiktaş has set aside for our interview.
“I came here to escape people like you,” he laughs and explains the joke to the club’s representatives through his Turkish interpreter.
He seems relaxed and in a good mood.
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Over the next 30 minutes, Solskjaer – who is 3,200 km away from his spiritual home in Manchester and 2,700 km from his actual home in Norway – reflects on the lack of contact with his former colleagues at United. He also reveals his shock at the sale of Scott McTominay and his concern about what is happening to his “family” at Old Trafford.
But this is not his main focus right now. He will have to concentrate on a massive and high-pressure coaching responsibility – and his first experience of an away city in Istanbul, when Beşiktaş face José Mourinho’s Fenerbahçe on Sunday.
This is an important game. Beşiktaş will need a good result to keep their hopes of a third-place finish, which – depending on who wins the Turkish Cup final – could earn them a place in the Europa League play-offs instead of the second qualifying round.
“That’s the deal I’ve made,” Solskjaer said. “That’s more important than any extra money. If we take third place, the players will get an extra week of vacation this summer.”
Fenerbahçe are chasing the third – and currently dominant – Istanbul club Galatasaray in the battle for the league gold. At the weekend, they are five points behind, with five games left. They cannot afford to fail. Who knows what Mourinho has in hand to turn the situation to his advantage.
Against this backdrop, Solskjaer has agreed to a lengthy interview with BBC Sport for the first time since losing his job at Manchester United in October 2021. Like Mourinho before him, the Norwegian paid the price for a setback the season after he finished second.
Beşiktaş is now clearly his club. But what happens at Old Trafford is always close to his heart.
“Manchester United is my family and will always be a part of me,” he says.
“In football, you don’t feel sorry for anyone, because we are privileged – absolutely 100% privileged – to work at clubs like this.”
“But for me, it’s hard to watch, because it’s your family that’s struggling. It’s never easy on weekends when you look at the table.”
He speaks with disbelief about the fact that United, at the time of the interview, are in 14th place in the Premier League.
They were in seventh place when he was sacked after a 4-1 defeat to Watford. Two months before that, they had been in third place, behind Chelsea on goal difference.
But a string of poor results – including a record-breaking 5-0 home defeat to Liverpool and a 2-0 defeat to Manchester City at Old Trafford, where the result was very flattering for United – meant Solskjaer knew what to expect as the Watford disaster unfolded.
It has taken a long time before he returned. Why Beşiktaş?
“You haven’t been here long enough,” he says with a smile.
“The club is fantastic. I talked to a lot of people without doing anything about it. This was the only person I spoke to where I looked back afterwards and thought ‘I wish I was there’, because there’s so much potential.”
“You feel that the club’s identity and culture align with yourself – the values of honesty, community involvement. We were the first club in Turkey to go abroad to play. In that way, it’s very similar to Manchester United. It just reminded me of United when I was there.”
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“Harry [Maguire] has always been a leader and a fighter for me,” Solskjaer said.
“I never had any doubt that he would be captain for us when we signed him and he came through the door.”
“There’s another captain there in Bruno [Fernandes]. Both of these two are wonderful people. I was so happy for them last night.”
“These two and Victor [Lindelof] are probably the only ones from the club I’ve heard from since I left. You only want the best for them.”
Solskjaer touched by United’s slump: “Like watching your family suffer
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In a heartfelt interview with the BBC, the former Manchester United legend opens up about his sorrows over the club’s crisis – and reacts to McTominay’s exit.
“Manchester United is and will remain my family. But now it’s like watching your loved ones go through a difficult period,” an emotional Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted to the BBC ahead of Sunday’s Turkish derby against José Mourinho’s Fenerbahçe.
Unsympathetic to McTominay sale
The Besiktas coach expresses particular discouragement over a specific decision:
“That they sold Scott McTominay to Napoli, I really don’t understand. Scott was at the heart of what United should stand for.”
Crisis mood in Manchester
The comments come as Solskjaer’s former club is going through its worst Premier League start ever:
- Ranked in a frightening 15th place
- Only 4 points in 6 games
- Facing Brentford away on Sunday under enormous pressure
Family ties that last
Despite the distance and new challenges in Turkey, the “Babyfaced Assassin” emphasizes:
“No matter where I am or what I do, United will always have a special place. It hurts to watch the games now, but the belief that they will turn it around, I always have.”
The interview shows how Solskjaer still carries United in his heart – while he himself is getting ready to face Mourinho in a dramatic Turkish top flight.
