Ole Gunnar Solskjaer urged Manchester United to bring Erling Haaland to Old Trafford. The United management couldn’t understand what was so special about the Norwegian striker. The rest is history. In 2021, Solskjaer stated that Amad Diallo is the player with the qualities to become important for Manchester United. Solskjaer was sacked the same year and Diallo disappeared on loan to Rangers, then Sunderland. Had the United management listened to Solskjaer this time as well, Diallo’s breakthrough would probably have come sooner.
Amad Diallo started to show off under Erik ten Hag, with Ruben Amorim at the helm, the 22-year-old has become United’s big gamechanger.
“Solskjaer was right. Amad needed time. United signed him as an 18-year-old with a view to the future. Still, he was ready for first-team play in the second half of last season, but ten Hag repeatedly overlooked him – both then and at the start of this season. This often led to frustration among fans, the local newspaper Manchester Evening News.
Last week came the contract extension with Amad Diallo, the local newspaper points out that Solskjaer saw it coming.
“By tying him to the club until 2030, United are clearly showing that they plan to make him a key player, as Solskjaer predicted,” the newspaper writes further about Diallo’s contract extension.
At the same time, Diallo could have been useful in the United shirt at an earlier stage – if Solskjaer had steered the ship.
– He only started four of the nine Premier League games under ten Hag before the Dutchman was sacked on October 28. In contrast, Amad has started nine of Amorim’s first 13 games as a coach. Had Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stayed on as United manager a little longer, the winger might have been able to get his career going at Old Trafford sooner, writes the local newspaper.
Solskjaer, the sage of football.
