Solskjaer To Boss Reserves

Virtuoso

Solskjaer to boss reserves
Former striker to take charge of second string

Manchester United have confirmed that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be in charge of their reserves next season.

The former Red Devils striker is currently coaching the club's attacking unit, but will be handed greater responsibility from next year.

The Norwegian is a cult hero at Old Trafford after scoring the winning goal in the 1999 UEFA Champions League final and only retired from playing at the start of the 2007/08 campaign.

He has been taking his coaching badges since stepping out of the limelight and Sir Alex Ferguson believes the mild-mannered forward has all the attributes to forge a successful management career in the future.

"We see this as a progressive move as Ole finalises getting his coaching badges," said the United boss.

"He is doing very well and we are very pleased because he has the right character.

"One thing you need in coaching is patience and Ole has that in abundance."

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,195...590535,00.html

Great news How inspiring will it be next season for all the youngsters in the Reserves to be managed by such a huge United legend, very exciting indeed

Elliott

What happens to McClair? Is this just a validation of Ole's coaching talent or has SAF been unhappy with the job Choccy and Jim Ryan have been doing? MUJAC?

Collina

McClair is the leader of the academy, they've been looking for a new coach.

Ryan has other duties at the club too.

Tribec

To be honest, the reserves under McClair have laboured over the past couple of years. I know we've not had the chance to field our strongest side, with people out on loan etc, but prior to McClair taking over the reserves were enjoyable to watch, now it's become a chore to do so.

RedNome

This is brilliant news for Ole and the reserves too, a real inspirational icon for them all to look up to, can only do them good and is a good starting role for Ole and his journey into coaching.

Elliott

Cheers. At what 'level' does Mulensteen stop working with players? Or is he in charge of skill development all the way through?

When I heard about Ole's new role I started thinking about the development or lack thereof of a few of our kids. For instance Martin and Gibson showed a lot of promise at 18-19, but it seems clear now they'll never make it. Is it all down to injuries and farming them out to the wrong clubs (that stuff will always be risky business) or have we not done 100% right by them at Carrington? A lad like Hewson, how hasn't been away, seems to have stagnated too. I don't know enough about the set-up to draw any conclusions, and there are quite a few players who've taken the steps expected. I'd just appreciate other people's views on the matter.

PS18

don't think you can blame Choccy for that at all. the reduction of the Prem Reserve League to an 18-game season and the subsequent increase in the number of players loaned out is far more culpable.

PS18

bit harsh on Hewson really. excellent for the academy last year, has had a decent season with the reserves this. not as eye-catching perhaps but solid enough for his first full season at that level.

with Martin and Gibson, it might just simply be that they're not as good as we hoped they'd be and never were going to be. injuries have certainly played a part but they've gone to decent clubs. i guess it's like birds fleeing the nest - you can only do so much for them before you have to see how they cope on their own and whether they sink or swim (i may be mixing metaphors here).

PS18

yeah, Jim Ryan's the director of youth football, both him and Choccy were only ever meant to be in temporary charge.

Elliott

Cheers, mate. Decent clubs. Yes and no, really. Stoke is a fine club. But if you saw all the balls that flew over Martin's head last season, it might - in retrospect - not have been the club for him. You talk a lot sense as always, though.

PS18

Stoke's a fair point, yeah. he did well at Plymouth who keep the ball on the deck, never really got going at Sheffield United. Rangers was a big opportunity for him, started very brightly as well but injuries scuppered him a bit there too. had some pretty rotten luck with injury at really inconvenient times to be fair to him, will definitely be a few 'what ifs' if he does move on.

Tribec

Looking back I could have done better in explaining my thoughts. OK, other factors have played the part, and of course the likes of Rossi, Pique, Blake and co were never going to be around for ever. However, from the free flowing football we got most weeks, even if the more senior reserves were out, we found with Choccy and more industrious approach, not to dissimilar to his own style of play. That's why I made the quote over it being laborious to watch.

PS18

but there's only so much you can do with the players available to you. this season for example, Choccy has been forced to play one upfront generally since christmas because Campbell and Brandy have been out on loan and Dong injured. he's not really had any options on the wing either. there's simply not the quality of footballer in the reserve setup that there was in the 'heady days' of Rossi, Blake, Piqué, Jones et al, i don't believe the quality of football would have been notably better over the past couple of seasons even with Meulensteen still in charge.

indeed, i think it was notable that towards the back end of this season we started playing some pretty good stuff - with Welbeck and Macheda breaking through ahead of schedule, the obviously talented Eagles still around and Rodrigo settling much better than anyone can have anticipated, the level of ability in the side rose and the football improved in correlation. Choccy was a decent footballer, not a flair player sure but i think industrious does him a disservice, both as a player and as a coach/thinker.

Tribec

I take your points on board about the team, and of course we can't have a golden generation every year or so.

In terms of Choccy though I stand by comments. Whilst this isn't the right place to discus this, I use the term industrious not as a negative sense, but one in positive manner. Choccy falls into a long line of players who quite clearly worked hard enough to get where they did, long hours on the training ground, as opposed to someone like Giggs, who had undoubted god given talent. Choccy worked hard at his game, and earned his rewards. His work ethic was unquestionable, and I think from what I've seen of his teams he coaches to try and pass that onto the players. At times however, his teams have perhaps shown a lack of imagination, which may be down to the players themselves or how they are told to play I don't know.

Name Changed

Fergie reckons Ole has the ability to be a brilliant coach and manager, more than anyone else that he has ever seen. You can't get any more praise than that.

Good luck to Ole, I reckon he will do well. I don't think McClair did a great job to be honest.

PS18

Warren Joyce is going to return from Antwerp to assist Ole next season.

Elliott

Kiss of death to the Antwerp link-up?

oskarutd

I heard the Sir said that, but it is strange since Andy Welsh was our emploee at Antwerp, but Joyce was employee of Royal Antwerp.

Epic

How ironic would that be with Antwerp having a good shout at promotion having won their first game 3:1.

Virtuoso

Sir Alex did always say that Solskjaer was a super sub because he would first examine the potholes in the opposition's defence and then exploit them. With that type of analysis and execution, there's no doubting that his understanding of the game would make him a special manager.

Name Changed

Big time. I'd love to see him progress. Maybe the next assistant manager at United.

mista john

Hi, in fact they lost their first game 1-0 to Tubize. Then won 3-1 in second game. Third game today vs. Leuven. No United players there at moment but Kirk Hilton is still hanging on - as Antwerp employee - unless he's out of contract. No news about Joyce moving to OT from Antwerp, guess they want to keep it quiet until play-offs settled.