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Former Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has given a tell-all interview about his time at the club.
The Norwegian was manager for 168 matches in total and was relieved off his duties in November 2021 after a crushing 4-1 loss to Watford sealed his fate.
Speaking to Sky Sports’ The Overlap YouTube channel, the 51 year old opened up on the blockbuster move for Cristiano Ronaldo in August 2021, which would also be one of the biggest nails in the coffin of the Kristiansund born coach’s tenure at United.
Elaborating on the moment when the legendary number seven returned to the club he claimed, “it was a very quick decision. We didn’t think Cristiano was available. We didn’t think he was going to move”.
Discussing his role in the move he stated, “I was excited, so I said yes. They (the owners) asked me, ‘would you want us to try this?’. Obviously we know Cristiano, he’s quality, he’s 37 but we’ll have to manage, he’s the best goal scorer in the world”.
The former United number 20 ultimately took responsibility for the decision and claimed “it was my decision. It didn’t work out for me, it didn’t work out for Cristiano, but it was the right decision at the time”.
The former Molde coach then confirmed what many have speculated – that the signing of the player disrupted the plans and preparations his side had made in the pre-season and the identity the team had constructed for themselves in his previous two and a half seasons.
Asked whether these pre-season plans had to go out of the window to an extent to accommodate the 37 year old he retorted, “we’d played four or five games, we’d started really well. So we started off straight away, how are we going to press? How are we going to change the little tweaks because Cristiano is different from Martial who was up front and if you were going to play Mason (Greenwood) or Marcus (Rashford) or obviously (Edinson) Cavani, he was the one that suffered the most, Cavani”.
The Uruguayan had played a key role the season before as the side’s top scorer in with 17 goals in all competitions and he scored frequently in the Europa League quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.
Nonetheless, the signing of the Portugal international relegated him to a bench role.
Solskjaer did claim that after Ronaldo’s awe-inspiring debut versus Newcastle, where he scored a brace in a 4-1 win, he thought “yeah, it’s going to work this”.
However when pressed by the interviewers, he claimed that it “100%” changed the team.
“On the ball, with him in the team, no problem. We had to change a little bit, different roles, we were one of the highest pressing teams actually before and we had loads of energy”.
“It was the right decision to make for me – it didn’t turn out to be the right one.”
Ronaldo himself had some attitude issues.
“When he arrived at the club, he told me to start him for three games in a row, and then put me on the bench for the fourth game, but he’s so passionate so when I did that, he didn’t like it,” Solskjaer said.
Despite the manager’s pride in bringing back such a bonafide legend and former teammate to the club, it is clear that he knows the decision to bring in the veteran was one of the main reasons his time at the club turned sour so quickly after a second placed finish and Europa League final only six months before his eventual sacking.
Soccer2day 