Richard Arnold sheds light on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s last days as Manchester United manager
Speaking to a fan forum (h/t The Mirror), Manchester United football director, Richard Arnold has opened up on the final few days of the club under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The Norwegian took over from Jose Mourinho in 2018 and has since steadily improved us. He did not however win any trophies, the closest being our Europa League final loss last season.
Despite the investment, Man United struggled to make an impact this season. Crushing losses to Liverpool and Manchester City showcased the gap that still existed between us and the other top sides in the league.
AN abject loss away to Watford finally did it for Solskjaer and the decision was taken to part ways with him. Ole has now revealed that the club did not talk to potential replacements before the Norwegian was relieved of his duties.
“Out of respect for Ole, we did not approach other managers before he left.”
He goes on to add that the club were keen to bring in an experienced hand to replace Solskjaer. Ralf Tangnick was the club’s first choice and we appear to have caught a break in that aspect. The German has since taken over as interim boss until the end of the campaign.
“Our plan then was to appoint an experienced interim manager and Ralf was our clear first choice.”
Glorifying failure?
Arnold also revealed that there was much optimism at the club following the strong start to the season. Unfortunately, it was not something that we could sustain and it reached a point of no return.
“After the promising early-season results, things went off plan.”
While Solskjaer paid the price for ultimately not turning the tide, Arnold believes the Norwegian should be given credit for the excellent job he did at Old Trafford. Perhaps the Man United honcho is being a tad too generous here.
“We’re all disappointed at Ole’s departure, but he deserves to be judged on his record over the past three years, not his last few weeks.”
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It is fair to say that Solskjaer’s status as a club legend masked opinion of him that would have been much more critical otherwise. His stint at the club did give us memorable moments, but it largely masked the deficiencies that largely went under the radar.
Replacing him was the right decision but sugarcoating his stint is once again going down the same road of self-delusion.
