Man Utd legend and former coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer reflects on the dark times he had whilst managing Man Utd. He remembers the time he knew he was sacked at half-time during a game against Watford.
Speaking to The Athletic about whether he felt he was going to get sacked, he said: “Nobody told me, but I knew at half-time against Watford. We didn’t look like a Man United team; the players weren’t running for each other.
At half-time, I told the players it was probably going to be the last time we worked together and to play with pride. We almost turned it around, until Harry Maguire got sent off.”
He added: “I got a text message the next morning from Ed Woodward saying he needed to see me in his office at Carrington. That was pretty hard when you’ve been at the club for 18 years with all those good and bad times.
“I’d had lots of backing and good times with Ed. He’d given me the chance and for that, I’ll always be grateful. I dropped my family at the airport before the text arrived. After the text, I told my wife that I might be back in Norway before her.
“It was an emotional day. Very emotional. I didn’t think it would be, but it was like leaving your family. I wanted to speak to all the players and say goodbye. I spoke to the coaches and the staff. Then I went back to an empty house.”
Solskjaer has no bad feelings about the club despite the sacking and even agreed to do a video to say bye to the fans. It was a teary interview but one thought was necessary: “I didn’t want not to say goodbye to fans who’d treated me so well, fans who felt like family. Doing the video felt like the right thing to do.”
Solskajer also went on to admit that signing Cristiano Ronaldo was a bad decision:
“It was a decision that was very difficult to turn down and I felt we had to take it, but it turned out wrong”.
Solskajer also felt he couldn’t always buy the players he wanted:
“Erling Haaland before he made his Salzburg debut. Declan Rice, who wouldn’t have cost what he did in the summer” Solskjaer continued.
“We discussed Moises Caicedo, but we felt we needed players ready for there and then. Brighton are very good at letting players come from abroad and find their feet for a year and a half. At United, you don’t have that luxury and that has cost the club loads of players.
We wanted Jude Bellingham badly – he’s a Man United player, but I respect he chose Dortmund. That was probably sensible.
“I would have signed (Harry) Kane every day of the week and my understanding was that he wanted to come,’ the former manager continued, namechecking one of United’s No 1 transfer targets of the last window. But the club didn’t have the budget with the financial constraints from Covid-19”.
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