Why did we make an early call on Solskjaer rather than waiting until the end of the season?

[AlwaysRed66]

The problem is if we had have waited until the season ended we would probably be top four, as it was only when he became manager that the pressure took hold. Seen it so often with caretakers & temporary managers getting the teams playing really well, then appointed full-time & clearly out of their depths.

 

[Sterling Archer]

How is this a thread? Ed Fecking Woodward. Clown. Decided he was better at football than a man that until TODAY was the most trophied active manager in football. He then hired a feel good fan favorite player without the experience because again, the idiot thinks he's a football genuis. He isn't even good at the business side.

 

[BlueHaze]

That might be the reason they did it but I doubt it was the reason they thought they were doing it.

Really I'd like to know what their thinking was as they discussed it. Did they just not foresee this downturn in form at all? Did they think it was worth the risk for X possible benefit (whatever that was)? Or, as suggested above, were alternative options turning them down, at which point appointing Solskjaer early and putting as much planning in as possible for the summer seemed like a pragmatic response?

Probably a mix of things, the results at that time being the biggest factor but I can also imagine Sir Alex was in favor of it happening and they probably took the advice. Also the entire mood around the club had literally gone from hell to heaven at that point. One other big fact was probably Ed knowing all previous ones was massive failures even though the last two had proven track records so he probably thought taking in someone "who knows the club" would somehow miraculously take us back to the top in no time. In the end the premature decision costed us 4th.

 

[Woodzy]

Because pundits and the media were getting giddy and Woodward has the decision making ability of a 5 year old.

Put the two together and you've got yourselves another season written off.

 

[Spoony]

We should have hired Klopp. Bridesmaid or not... he's quality.

 

[SAFMUTD]

Its simple. Emotionalism, but hindsight is always 20/20. He is the manager now and deserves time to show what he is capable of.

Deserves? He deserves shit, we deserve to have a proper season.

 

[R'hllor]

Because we are mumble rappers of football, cant stick to a subject more then 10 sec.

 

[Sir Scott McToMinay]

Because we’re a sentimental tacky club with sentimental and tacky fans.

 

[hobbers]

Because Woodward let sentimental-but-not-intelligent pundits and noisy fans make the decision for him.

 

[Unitedsince85]

Top and bottom of it is we as united fans just cant handle where we are now, we have a sense of entitlement thanks to the SAF years, well thats all gone now and we need to accept its not coming back, not in the short term at least, we are a big club in name only im afraid.

 

[Moriarty]

We should have hired Klopp. Bridesmaid or not... he's quality.

Trouble is, he wouldn't think twice about stepping on Woodward's toes.

 

[bonothom]

Cos Ed Woodward is frigging clown and has no idea about Football, good with a spreadsheet though.

 

[Jacko21]

Because we’re a sentimental tacky club with sentimental and tacky fans.

And yet you started a thread about giving Ole a chance based on the fact 'he knows the club.'

 

[Sayros]

Two letters,
PR

The club was in bad need of a good-feel news, OGS was winning, and as always Ed Woodward with the premature, terrible decision decides to go ahead and get some heat off him and the club by signing a permanent deal instead of waiting for the summer like he should have. And, in typical Woodward fashion, it has backfired spectacularly so far.

 

[Acole9]

Absolutely awful decision, has to be one of the most brainless.

 

[Roboc7]

If we hadn’t appointed Ole we probably would have gone for Conte, that’s how this club operates. Jose only got sacked because of how he behaved, was almost asking to be sacked. They’d have persisted with him if he had shown any willingness to sort it out.

 

[LazyRed-Ninja]

Deserves? He deserves shit, we deserve to have a proper season.

Deserving within the context of him being given a contract only 2 months ago. You cant sack a manager after he signed a contract only 2 months ago can you? Especially at a club like United
PR wise, just think about the consequences if Ole got the sack only 2 months after he was handed a contract? He is a club legend and would never turn down such a dreamjob. This is all on the board. The plan was to install Ole as a caretaker, but everybody got carried away in emotionalism. One loss to Wolves in that fa cup QF and everything collapsed like a deck of cards. The board should have waited until the end of the season. Everybody was riding the momentum but the rational decision was to wait and let the 6 months play out to see how this team would react under a bad spell.

 

[Neil_Buchanan]

I agreed with it at the time but in hindsight it was a terrible decision, it achieved nothing. There was no risk of Ole going anywhere else and as a business man you would expect better of Woodward.

 

[SAFMUTD]

Deserving within the context of him being given a contract only 2 months ago. You cant sack a manager after he signed a contract only 2 months ago can you? Especially at a club like United
PR wise, just think about the consequences if Ole got the sack only 2 months after he was handed a contract? He is a club legend and would never turn down such a dreamjob. This is all on the board. The plan was to install Ole as a caretaker, but everybody got carried away in emotionalism. One loss to Wolves in that fa cup QF and everything collapsed like a deck of cards. The board should have waited until the end of the season. Everybody was riding the momentum but the rational decision was to wait and let the 6 months play out to see how this team would react under a bad spell.

We can and we should, enough of the sentimentalism.

We should not stop this train crash that everybody can see just because of PR?

Its not just about not getting out of the hole, but we are digging deeper. Next season we will be out of the UCL again, with probably more deadwood in the squad and being even less attractive to talent than what we are right now.

There’s absolutely no need to waste more time on this nonsense.

 

[OLLY ORANGE]

Two letters,
PR

The club was in bad need of a good-feel news, OGS was winning, and as always Ed Woodward with the premature, terrible decision decides to go ahead and get some heat off him and the club by signing a permanent deal instead of waiting for the summer like he should have. And, in typical Woodward fashion, it has backfired spectacularly so far.

Totally agree

 

[DRM]

This was the final straw in woodwards coffin for me and he simply has to go. I just don't get why, as initially planned, he didnt wait till the end of the season. Stupid, short-sighted and utterly moronic to jump the gun like that. Clearly proves woodward is not a competent CEO. If he was running any other business, he would've been sacked a long time ago. The fact that he still remains here just shows how badly run we are.

 

[LazyRed-Ninja]

We can and we should, enough of the sentimentalism.

We should not stop this train crash that everybody can see just because of PR?

Its not just about not getting out of the hole, but we are digging deeper. Next season we will be out of the UCL again, with probably more deadwood in the squad and being even less attractive to talent than what we are right now.

There’s absolutely no need to waste more time on this nonsense.

This is not about sacking a manager. We have seen that under previous managers. There is a structural problem and appointing another manager (with his own vision) will only entail a groundhog day. Lets play the hypothetical game. Which manager would come in now realistically speaking? What players would he want ? Does he embody the ‘united’ way? Does he believe in the ‘youth’ ? There were articles recently about a different approach from the club, moving away from the ‘galacticos’ model, to a model of building players with the right attitude and character to play for United. Many fans stand behind this , hence giving Ole the chance to show what he can do implementing this ‘new identity’. Sacking Ole now would be more detrimental, at a time where the club can not afford many mistakes anymore.

After 3-4 managers its time to hold the board accountable. Sacking a manager only deflects from the incompetency of certain board members and every year the club fails to adress this issue is another year United falls behind their rivals.

 

[JK-27]

The longer Ole was doing well, the bigger and more lucrative contract he could have negotiated for. Woodward bit the bullet early because he wanted to get Ole cheap, it was a decision made on money not managerial ability. And once again Woodwards money based decision making is costing us.

 

[haram]

Because of the song and the narrative on social media. Genuinely.

 

[Tom Cato]

Well that's another point.

At the time I thought the idea was to make the appointment, then put the rest of the long term structure in place before the summer. So far though we haven't actually secured the likes of Phelan for next season have we? Let alone any other restructuring behind the scenes.

The timing would have made more sense to me if they felt the managerial appointment was a neccesary first part of broader changes that needed to take place before the start of the next season but as is nothing else seems to have followed on from that initial first step.

Mike Phelan was confirmed as assistant manager on a 3 year contract. Carrick will become Technical Director next season.

 

[SAFMUTD]

This is not about sacking a manager. We have seen that under previous managers. There is a structural problem and appointing another manager (with his own vision) will only entail a groundhog day. Lets play the hypothetical game. Which manager would come in now realistically speaking? What player would he want ? Does he embody the ‘united’ way? Does he believe in the ‘youth’ ? There were articles recently about a different approach from the club, omving away from the ‘galacticos’ model, to a model of building players with the right attitude and character to play for United. Many fans stand behind this , hence giving Ole the chance to show what he can do implementing this ‘new identity’. Sacking Ole now would be more detrimental, at a time where the club can not afford many mistakes anymore.

I agree the manager is not the only nor the greatest problem we have, but he is a problem. I agree with moving away from the “galacticos model” but Ole is not the right fit.

Galacticos really between the lines, since we haven’t signed any worldclass player besides Pogba. We have signed a few top players but no galacticos, if we were going full galacticos and signed players competing for the Ballon d’oro that would be another thing. But it seems that we signed Di Maria and Alexis and didnt work out so we are doomed and we are supposed to sign only young talents because “the galacticos way doesnt work”.

 

[kouroux]

Everyone was shouting “give Ole the job”, now in hindsight it’s Woodwards fault.

What fans say in moments of joy and delirium should always be taken with a pinch of salt. It's never good to make decisions like these based on emotions

 

[nainaisson]

We should have hired Klopp. Bridesmaid or not... he's quality.

We tried to hire Klopp and Guardiola, but they were too smart to take the job. It's no secret that the board are greedy incompetents who see the club as nothing more than a cash cow.

 

[LazyRed-Ninja]

What fans say in moments of joy and delirium should always be taken with a pinch of salt. It's never good to make decisions like these based on emotions

Exactly. The 6 months should have been played out. If this team carried the momentum all the way through, finishing top 4, it would be unlikely to not give him the job. However, giving a caretaker a contract before this was a big risk and i am sure those omelletes dont taste good with all the egg on their face now.

 

[Nr.7]

What fans say in moments of joy and delirium should always be taken with a pinch of salt. It's never good to make decisions like these based on emotions

It wasn’t just the fans. The press were on about it as well.
By the end of the PSG game there was hardly anyone that wasn’t “give Ole the job”.
It was similar to the Sanchez transfer and all of the “announce Sanchez” talk.
Everyone was raving how we snatched him for City, but since he turned out the be sh!t and passed it, Woodward is an idiot for bringing him here.

I’m not a fan of Woodward by all means, but let’s be fair.

 

[devilish]

Ole insists on this good players and they worked hard crap

 

[RedRonaldo]

Hindsight... to be fair when the club offer Ole the contract, we were beating everyone and having the best winning run in many years. Everyone was happy.

 

[emdee04]

Honestly, it shouldn’t be off the table that we consider moving off Ole and hiring Allegri. At least he’s a proven winner. Admittedly he doesn’t play beautiful football but at this dire stage, that should be a secondary criteria. We need a proven winner.

And then end up running round circles? same excuses we gave to justify our support for Jose's appointment. Yeah, look how that turned out

 

[kouroux]

It wasn’t just the fans. The press were on about it as well.
By the end of the PSG game there was hardly anyone that wasn’t “give Ole the job”.
It was similar to the Sanchez transfer and all of the “announce Sanchez” talk.
Everyone was raving how we snatched him for City, but since he turned out the be sh!t and passed it, Woodward is an idiot for bringing him here.

I’m not a fan of Woodward by all means, but let’s be fair.

The press is hardly the best testament of sense, if anything the men in charge should have been even more careful. It was needless to rush into things, we are our own worst ennemies

 

[Mibabalou]

The entire club top to bottom is run so very very terribly, that's the answer to pretty much everything.

We have 7 noodle sponsors and an official mattress but no director of football. Were simply a money cow for the fecking glazer vampires, they just need us to be half decent so the money keeps rolling. They won't get things in place like city have top to bottom they just don't care about winning anything.

The entire goal of city is good PR for an authortian regime in the mid east, you do that by winning; us our goal is to make money for vampires.

 

[FrantikChicken]

In a way I think it's good that the appointment was made. The players stopped playing as soon as that happened. What if they worked their socks off till the end of the season, and then immediately downed tools on the new manager next season? At least now we have the summer to hopefully clear some of the dross out without thinking about the new manager needing to give them a chance. They've already had it and lost it.

 

[NJM78]

Sentimental bollocks.

 

[Dargonk]

Funnily enough I would say because the fans and media pressured them into it after the amazing run of results. While I did think at the time they were going to wait as planned to finalise it at the end of the season, I wasn't surprised that they went ahead with it. Momentum was behind him to get the job full time, and a small narrative of why hasn't he/when will he be confirmed as the permanent manager was steadily building.

The Club I feel just looked to capitalise and allow Ole to start thinking more long term, instead of confirming it and risk the club not behind ready with targets and such at the end of the season.

 

[blue blue]

Aye, I would have thought there was always a negative side to the players realising Ole was going to be their permanent boss as well as a positive.

If you're a player who is out of favour with the interim manager you can shrug, be optimistic that the next guy will rate you and focus on getting the club into the CL for the sake of next season. Whereas if you're out of favour with the permanent manager you suddenly have to make decisions about whether you want to be at the club at all next season.

I know we are heading off topic here but this is an interesting line of thought. My club has had more managers than most and talk of player power has become the norm. There could be a secondary effect to clubs changing managers frequently whereby the dressing room loses all cohesion and players raise and lower their performance levels to keep the managers position in a state of permanent doubt. Very cynical I know but I'm not saying they do it deliberately. A lot of sport is in the head and players perform better when all they have to do if focus on their game. If the players are distracted by the security of the managers position they are not focused on their own game. Its self perpetuating.

A dressing room needs stability with genuine leaders holding the managers line not players blowing in the wind because they may or may not like the manager.

The timing of Ole's permanent position was just plane stupid. I was genuinely surprised the board decided to change the only decent looking decision they had made in years. They saw a quick, cheap fix and went for it. I'm pretty sure the owners will be regretting the move and looking for a presentable response. To be honest I think the board are happy if the money keeps rolling in so I think the football side of things will continue to suffer for some time. They can't possibly sack Ole now. It would make them the biggest laughing stock since Cloughie left Leeds. They have to back him in the transfer market but I'm pretty sure they will also expect him to sell. I don't know if Utd can attract the top players at the moment. There are plenty of other big clubs with champions league football out there so why would they go to Utd at the moment? Ole has a real job on his hands and will need plenty of time.

 

[Camilo]

If Ole had continued that form until the end of the season we'd have had no issue with it.. All looked great a couple of months ago, and I suppose the idea of having everyone in place long before the summer window made sense. Obviously our play has dropped off a cliff and everything looks awful now, but two months ago it made some sense for sure.