Ole finally put out of his Old Trafford misery
Finally, Manchester United's board act and sack Old Trafford legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, bringing an end to the Norwegian's reign just a month shy of three years.
I’ve never been one for calling for manager’s heads, but sometimes it appears to the outside world as being an obvious decision.
This looks to be the case in the instance of Manchester United and their now ex-manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Yes, United finally pulled the trigger earlier today and put an end to what has now been a torturous affair for a few weeks. A torturous affair for both the majority of Man Utd fans (there were some who supported him), and the man himself.
As we’ve seen lately with the Steve Bruce situation at Newcastle United, there is a human side to all of this. Only a cold-hearted assassin (and obviously Newcastle fans) could have failed to have felt some sympathy with native Geordie, Bruce.
And the same situation had slowly been developing at Old Trafford. Solskjaer had become an injured racehorse that needed shooting to put out of his misery.
The longer the situation went on, the worse the suffering was for all.
We’ve already seen a rejuvenated Bruce sitting in the stands at the cricket world cup, no doubt, feeling a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Now Solskjaer can do the equivalent to Bruce’s cricket jaunt.
A failure to act has deepened United’s slide
But who are the real culprits who have let this situation fester and turn into the footballing crisis it has now become?
Yes, crisis isn’t a phrase that should be used in football, but if there is such a thing as a footballing crisis, this is it (for Man Utd at least).
For me the culprits are the club’s hierarchy.
Maybe we don’t know the inside track, but to us on the outside it’s been fairly obvious for a few weeks now that Solskjaer was finished.
So, I have to ask myself why didn’t United act when Antonio Conte was available? Did United not want him? Or did they just dither and delay?
Spurs realised quite quickly they had made a mistake with Nuno Espirito Santo and they acted. They didn’t dither and delay.
Yes, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and it’s pretty obvious that Spurs and Nuno were not a match.
So they quickly got rid of!
United on the other hand have messed around. And in the process, seen the situation worsen, and now almost - according to media reports - have a mini-mutiny on their hands, with a whole host of disgruntled players looking to exit the club in January.
Dean Henderson, Donny van de Beek, and Jesse Lingard, are all rumoured to want out!
Keeping a dead man walking until the end of the season was never going to help resolve that situation.
Liverpool showed the way back in 2015
When Jurgen Klopp was available in 2015 and Liverpool were considering replacing Brendon Rodgers, they didn’t dither until someone else came in and snapped him up, they acted quickly.
Rodgers’ sacking may have felt a touch premature at the time - at least it did to me, but Liverpool didn’t want to miss out on Klopp.
The Reds didn’t dither and wait for Chelsea to sack Mourinho and snare Klopp, they moved quickly to ensure they didn’t miss out on the German.
Look at the success they’ve had since making that decisive move.
Did United not want Conte? Or did they just sit on their hands and hope for Solskjaer to turn things around?
At the moment we don’t know. But from the outside looking in, it looks like nothing other than bad leadership from the club’s hierarchy, and pretty much sums up why Man Utd are in the mess they are!