Is Gerrard's title win at Rangers any different to Solskjaer's double title win at Molde?

RedPed

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It's impressive what Slippy G has done at Rangers considering the dominance Celtic has had over the last decade in the SPL and now everybody's fawning over him and even bigging him up for the Dippers job in the future, which is fair enough. Yet most people have always been so dismissive of Solskjaer's achievements in Norway. After Rosenborg BK had dominated the Eliteserien for over a decade, winning title after title, Solskjaer took over Molde and won back to back titles in his first two seasons. Their first ever titles by the way. He left them in a better place to join Cardiff and they've gone on to win the league since.

Yeah, you might say it's only the Norwegian League, which is fair enough but they were only 3 places behind Scotland in the UEFA rankings at the time when Solskjaer won his titles with Molde. You have to look at each league in it's own merit.

Is there just a lot of double standards where Solksjaer is concerned. Even now finishing 2nd in the league and a potential Europa League trophy is not enough for some people. I just don't get it, especially with all the plaudits Gerrard is getting. Not saying he hasn't done a fantastic job. What he's done there is very commendable. Be interested to see what happens next season.
 

Red Foxx

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Not even remotely close. A few years ago, Rangers weren't even in the SPL.

They stopped Celtic from winning 10 in a row, completed an invincible season and have won every home game this season.

As much as it pains me to say, Gerrard definitely deserves respect for what he's doing up there
 

Pink Moon

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Not even remotely close. A few years ago, Rangers weren't even in the SPL.

They stopped Celtic from winning 10 in a row, completed an invincible season and have won every home game this season.

As much as it pains me to say, Gerrard definitely deserves respect for what he's doing up there
Celtic stopped Celtic. Name one other club that would be stupid enough to replace Brendan Rodgers with a clueless booze bag like Neil Lennon?

The day we announced that, the Rangers twitter account put out a celebratory tweet. Says it all, really.
 

James Peril

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Absolutely not. The level is extremely low, even hard to call it professional. No competition whatsoever, Celtic ended up in a rut - just like Rosenborg in Norway after winning for twenty years.
 

Zen86

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He won the title with Rangers in a league which is only ever won by Rangers or Celtic
 

Mainoldo

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Celtic stopped Celtic. Name one other club that would be stupid enough to replace Brendan Rodgers with a clueless booze bag like Neil Lennon?

The day we announced that, the Rangers twitter account put out a celebratory tweet. Says it all, really.
Manchester United :lol:
 

Mark_Barca

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Imagine trying to downplay what Gerrard has done in Scotland and actually claim Celtic were in a rut when Rangers took 102 points and went unbeaten. :lol:

As for the point above about Rodgers, lets' not forget Celtic were starting to stagnate under him, hence Rangers being joint top December 2019. Dropped 18 points in the first 20 league games that season. Were many narrow wins. Didn't deserve to win the first old firm game that year either. Yes they went on a good run after New Year but that was helped by an easy fixture list and included very late goals to secure 3 points. Nowhere near as dominant as previously and Rodgers knew this and made the jump as he was not getting the signings he wanted.

Look at his signings that summer outside Edouard, it was Arzani, Shved, Bayo, Burke, Izzaguirre, Weah, Mulumbu etc. Signings season before were as bad! The downsizing and poor signings had already occurred under Rodgers, let's not rewrite history here.

Fine and dandy brushing aside Warburton and Pedro Caxinha Rangers sides finishing third behind Aberdeen, but when Rangers started to improve and the 4 goal margin wins were long gone, he knew exactly a challenge was coming.

Also didn't hear complaints when Lennon went on to win 5/5 trophies including another treble after taking over..
 

Jezpeza

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Scottish football has steeply declined over the last decade. Great achievement in the context of that league for stevie g at rangers but its pretty meaningless. He will move on to bigger and better tests in the premier league i am sure of it. And we will get more of a measure of him then.
 

Foxbatt

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It's impressive what Slippy G has done at Rangers considering the dominance Celtic has had over the last decade in the SPL and now everybody's fawning over him and even bigging him up for the Dippers job in the future, which is fair enough. Yet most people have always been so dismissive of Solskjaer's achievements in Norway. After Rosenborg BK had dominated the Eliteserien for over a decade, winning title after title, Solskjaer took over Molde and won back to back titles in his first two seasons. Their first ever titles by the way. He left them in a better place to join Cardiff and they've gone on to win the league since.

Yeah, you might say it's only the Norwegian League, which is fair enough but they were only 3 places behind Scotland in the UEFA rankings at the time when Solskjaer won his titles with Molde. You have to look at each league in it's own merit.

Is there just a lot of double standards where Solksjaer is concerned. Even now finishing 2nd in the league and a potential Europa League trophy is not enough for some people. I just don't get it, especially with all the plaudits Gerrard is getting. Not saying he hasn't done a fantastic job. What he's done there is very commendable. Be interested to see what happens next season.
You cannot equate the National team to the clubs. Compare what the Scottish champions do in Europe and the Norwegians champions do because a lot of top players play in other leagues hence the national team and the clubs have no comparison.
 

izec

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He is doing well as a manager, has to be said. Even if Celtic were on form, they would have struggled to win the title.
 

Oranges038

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Man wins league with one of the two teams that are expected to win it. We all know who the last team other than Rangers or cletic were to win the league.

SFPL is barely even a competition for 10 of the teams in it.
 

The holy trinity 68

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Not even remotely close. A few years ago, Rangers weren't even in the SPL.

They stopped Celtic from winning 10 in a row, completed an invincible season and have won every home game this season.

As much as it pains me to say, Gerrard definitely deserves respect for what he's doing up there
Molde had not even won a league title in their 100 year existence until Ole came along, so yeah not even close, Ole's achievement is much better.
 

theklr

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Molde had not even won a league title in their 100 year existence until Ole came along, so yeah not even close, Ole's achievement is much better.
Yeah this. If Gerrard had won it with Aberdeen it would have been comparable...

At the time Ole won it was practically a non contest because of the top dog , just like Celtic/Rangers have been
 

Peter van der Gea

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You can only beat what's in front of you, and if the quality of your league is low, your team's quality is probably low too.

Molde and Rangers are both great achievements, respective to their teams and their competitions. Gerrard has achieved a great points tally, and Ole went on to retain the title. But until they are in same league, at the same time, with comparable teams, you can't really compare them.

And btw, of course Gerrard is touted as the Liverpool manager, local lad, long term club captain, club legend and actually succeeding, unlike 99% of the English managers out their. I just hope he gets the job too early, fecks it up and does decent somewhere else.
 

RedPed

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Molde had not even won a league title in their 100 year existence until Ole came along, so yeah not even close, Ole's achievement is much better.
Yeah this. If Gerrard had won it with Aberdeen it would have been comparable...

At the time Ole won it was practically a non contest because of the top dog , just like Celtic/Rangers have been
That's why I don't understand why Gerrard is being hailed as a genius yet Solskjaer's achievement is just dismissed as nothing.
 

RedPed

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You can only beat what's in front of you, and if the quality of your league is low, your team's quality is probably low too.

Molde and Rangers are both great achievements, respective to their teams and their competitions. Gerrard has achieved a great points tally, and Ole went on to retain the title. But until they are in same league, at the same time, with comparable teams, you can't really compare them.

And btw, of course Gerrard is touted as the Liverpool manager, local lad, long term club captain, club legend and actually succeeding, unlike 99% of the English managers out their. I just hope he gets the job too early, fecks it up and does decent somewhere else.
Solskjaer gets stick because of his relegation with Cardiff. I guess we can only judge Gerrard comparably when he takes on a similar project outside of a 2-team league....perhaps like a Derby or something like that.
 

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they were runners up the previous two seasons so it's not like they were a surprise package, but the record this season has been phenomenal

fair play to Stevie he's done great

must be a slip-in for the Liverpool job when Klopp leaves
 

phenry

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Celtic stopped Celtic. Name one other club that would be stupid enough to replace Brendan Rodgers with a clueless booze bag like Neil Lennon?

The day we announced that, the Rangers twitter account put out a celebratory tweet. Says it all, really.
Yea this is it exactly. I remember thinking it was a joke at the time. Couldn't believe they thought lennon was an adequate replacement. The celtic job was big enough to attract an up and coming prospect who had shown a lot of promise. I still wonder why lennon
 

MU655

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Molde had not even won a league title in their 100 year existence until Ole came along, so yeah not even close, Ole's achievement is much better.
The one thing about this is I checked and they have won it 3 more times since then and finished second 3 times in the last four years.

Molde had actually finished in the top three 6 times (5 second place finishes - more than any other club during that time) already from the 90s up to 2011, so it is not like they had never challenged for the title before. I mean they even finished second in 2008/2009, one and a half seasons before Solskjaer took over.

2011 - 1st
2012 - 1st
2013 - Not top three
2014 - 1st
2015 - Not top three
2016 - Not top three
2017 - 2nd
2018 - 1st
2019 - 2nd
2020 - 2nd

I'm not sure Molde are as small as some have made out as they seem to have had a pretty strong period from the start of the 90s in comparison to their competitors (Rosenborg aside as are clearly dominant), but Molde seem to have been the second best side in terms of consistent finishes. From the way some were speaking, I actually thought that they had never been anywhere near the top, but it seems not to be the case.

1st place - 4
2nd place - 8
3rd place - 2

14 top three places out of 30 years seems to be far higher than any other club, aside from Rosenborg. They do seem to be a bit like the Rangers of the Norwegian league, to be honest.

Molde seem to be the second-biggest spenders, also, especially since around 2009/10
 
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calodo2003

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Who was the last non-Celtic / non-Rangers club to win the league in Scotland & when?
 

Champ

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Rangers spent a fair bit of money to get to where they are don't forget...
Gerrard does deserve credit, but when your nearest and only rivals are as poor as they are then you're on to a winner straight away!
 

Grande

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You can only beat what's in front of you, and if the quality of your league is low, your team's quality is probably low too.

Molde and Rangers are both great achievements, respective to their teams and their competitions. Gerrard has achieved a great points tally, and Ole went on to retain the title. But until they are in same league, at the same time, with comparable teams, you can't really compare them.

And btw, of course Gerrard is touted as the Liverpool manager, local lad, long term club captain, club legend and actually succeeding, unlike 99% of the English managers out their. I just hope he gets the job too early, fecks it up and does decent somewhere else.
Yes, Gerrard has done a very good job of furthering a club on the way back to do brilliantly. It’s not as if Rangers were St Mirren og course, and its not as if he built them from the ground up like Lou Macari at Swindon (google that, you historyless nitwits ...;)

But this idea that all the great coaches is assembled in the top 20 clubs in Europe is naive and simplistic, and has been for a long time. The simpler truth is that a great manager/coach achievement in one environment is seldom easily transfered to another club working in different conditions. The three most renowned coaches after Ferguson are brilliant coaches, yet what sets them apart is their ability to pick clubs that are similiar environments to the ones they first succeeded in (and their luck in that such clubs picked them). It’s a combo of good PR, luck and great competency. Almost no other coaches can boast such ‘streaks of success’. So, yes, Solskjær and Gerrard have proved they have great competency as managers/coaches at Molde and Rangers. And no, that doesn’t equate to taking over Cardiff and Norwich (hypothetical) and acheiving relative success with them. And what happens at Manchester United and Liverpool is a whole other matter. Solskjær has done a good job transforming/rebuilding Man Utd over two years. Who knows where it ends. And who knows what will happen if Gerrard gets a shot at Liverpool.

What we do know, is that Solskjær had much more experience when he took over United, than did Lampard, Arteta, Guardiola, Zidane in their day. And let’s see what shots Gerrard get.
 

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Worth remembering he couldn't even win the most laid on a plate treble you're ever likely to get. St Mirren and St Johnstone put him out of both cups. Excellent league campaign, of course, but he isn't quite the manager some people are making him out to be. Indeed if it weren't for the COVID cancellation last season he would probably have gotten sacked given how torrid their run of form was up until that point.
 

Mindhunter

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Because Scotland is closer to England than Norway. No body cares about Norway, especially the English press.
 

Halftrack

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Not even remotely close. A few years ago, Rangers weren't even in the SPL.
A few years before Ole, Molde weren't even in the Norwegian top division. Not saying that makes it identical, just adding that Molde were fecking shit for years before Ole came there. They did manage to bumble their way to a 2nd place, but promptly went back to being shit again after that, avoiding relegation through a good run of form at the tail end of the season. Ole took over right after that escape, and won the league first try.
 

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Oles achievements are discussed with reference to getting the United job

You're right in that people give more credit to achievements they're familiar with, but the situations aren't the same.
 

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Molde had not even won a league title in their 100 year existence until Ole came along, so yeah not even close, Ole's achievement is much better.
Yeah no. They invested big if you do your research. For a group of fans who go on about teams in blue buying titles you lot are awfully ignorant when judging Solskjaer's success at Molde. And they actually dipped while he was still there and then had a big bounce back once he had left the first time.
 

AshRK

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I feel people read too much into Ole's time at cardiff and downplay his achievements. Ole should never have taken that job, it was a job destined for failure. It is like gerrard taking over West Brom's job when Bilic was sacked.

Ole's achievement at Molde is to be appreciated just as Gerrard's achievement at rangers.
 

stu_1992

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I think both achievements are comparable, but I think the answer is obvious to be honest. Rangers are a bigger name and have more visibility (especially to British fans) than Molde, and so people pay attention more. Hence he's getting more plaudits. Gerrard himself is a bigger name in the wider football world than Ole too, which I'm sure is a factor as well as being English, so the British media will eat it up.

We'll see what Gerrard does from here, if he moves to a Cardiff and doesn't do well, people will rewrite history about his achievements with Rangers, exactly what people did with Ole. Ole is held to a far higher standard now because he is at Manchester United and he is expected to deliver now.
 

desertegil

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Molde has had lots money pumped in by a couple of local billionaires since the mid 1990s, first years mostly spent on a new stadium and upgrading training facilities, and later focusing on organizational structure optimizing, scouting, recruiting, etc. They are the only team in Norway remotely capable of competing with Rosenborg financially (whose wealth comes from total domination in the 90s and 00s and more or less monopolizing CL participation money in that time).
 

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Celtic stopped Celtic. Name one other club that would be stupid enough to replace Brendan Rodgers with a clueless booze bag like Neil Lennon?

The day we announced that, the Rangers twitter account put out a celebratory tweet. Says it all, really.
Rangers went through the season unbeaten and finished 25 points ahead of Celtic
Rodgers or not, they were winning it this season
 

Cast5

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Solskjaer’s is far more impressive, Ole’s not English so the English press would much rather have a wank over Slippy G’s escapades in Scotland. Ole played for United and is managing United which is a huge problem for the English press, people don’t realise how much we’re despised.
 

redrobed

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Both have done as much as they could with those clubs. Ole’s has gone on to greater challenges. Gerrard needs to do the same before any comparison can be made. Until he does Ole is the better manager
 

RedPed

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The one thing about this is I checked and they have won it 3 more times since then and finished second 3 times in the last four years.

Molde had actually finished in the top three 6 times (5 second place finishes - more than any other club during that time) already from the 90s up to 2011, so it is not like they had never challenged for the title before. I mean they even finished second in 2008/2009, one and a half seasons before Solskjaer took over.

2011 - 1st
2012 - 1st
2013 - Not top three
2014 - 1st
2015 - Not top three
2016 - Not top three
2017 - 2nd
2018 - 1st
2019 - 2nd
2020 - 2nd

I'm not sure Molde are as small as some have made out as they seem to have had a pretty strong period from the start of the 90s in comparison to their competitors (Rosenborg aside as are clearly dominant), but Molde seem to have been the second best side in terms of consistent finishes. From the way some were speaking, I actually thought that they had never been anywhere near the top, but it seems not to be the case.

1st place - 4
2nd place - 8
3rd place - 2

14 top three places out of 30 years seems to be far higher than any other club, aside from Rosenborg. They do seem to be a bit like the Rangers of the Norwegian league, to be honest.

Molde seem to be the second-biggest spenders, also, especially since around 2009/10
Ah nothing like Rangers then.
 

Agila Dathi

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I don’t know shit anout the Norwegian league, but some of my mates follow it. According to them Molde became rich shortly before Ole got the job and were suddenly able to buy the best players, so basicly Ole won those titles like PSG did in france.
But that’s what I’ve heard from my mates, I don’t know if it’s true or not.
 

Cast5

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I don’t know shit anout the Norwegian league, but some of my mates follow it. According to them Molde became rich shortly before Ole got the job and were suddenly able to buy the best players, so basicly Ole won those titles like PSG did in france.
But that’s what I’ve heard from my mates, I don’t know if it’s true or not.
You got any Scottish mates? You sound like a well travelled man
 

hobbers

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Gerrard's achievement with Rangers is worth far more than title wins in Norway ...