Manchester United made Champions League history on Wednesday and former club captain and legend, Gary Neville believes there is “no way” Ole Gunnar Solskjaer isn’t given the full-time job as Manchester United manager following the club’s 3-1 second-leg win over PSG on Wednesday, which saw the club into the Champions League quarter-finals. The club’s former defender can’t see any way the Norwegian doesn’t end up as full-time boss after Wednesday’s Champions League stunner.
Solskjaer took over as interim boss in December following Jose Mourinho’s departure and has led a remarkable turnaround in form which has seen the Reds bridge an 11-point gap to the top four. The Norwegian has also taken United into the FA Cup quarter-finals with victories over Arsenal and Chelsea in rounds four and five respectively.
The former Manchester United defender had earlier predicted that the 46-year-old would be appointed by the club “in the next couple of weeks” , and while he still believes that to be the right timeline, he says Wednesday’s result makes it even less likely that the club won’t hand the job to their interim boss. “There is no way he is not going to get the job,” he told Viasport following the match. “I think it’s just a case of the timing. I think they’ll stick to the original timing.
“I don’t think they’ll bring it forward because they’ve got a big game on Sunday against Arsenal. So why would you distract everything from that game? You wouldn’t do. You’d stick to the plan.”
And while the signing may have to wait, Neville joked that Wednesday’s win over PSG may have raised the amount Manchester United will have to spend to sign the Norwegian to a full-time deal with the club. “There was no doubt before the game for me,” he said of the club giving Solskjaer the job on a full-time basis. “After the game, he can name the length of his contract, he can name his salary, he can put a statue outside of the ground wherever he wants. He can do whatever he wants after that.”
The win over PSG will go down as a historic moment for the club. The French giants held a 2-0 lead heading into the night and the miraculous turnaround saw Man Utd become the first club to ever advance in the Champions League after losing by two or more goals at home in the first leg . And Neville believes the match rates among the best nights in club history given the circumstances.
“This feels out of this world just because of the size of the task, and also the team Manchester United had tonight,” he said. “Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had to play the young boys, all the midfield is gone, Martial is not there. I’ve not seen many games like that in my time. As a fan it was absolutely out of this world. I didn’t give them a chance. Not one chance.”
The former United striker has not only brought back the smiles to a side that was so abject before Christmas, but done so with outstanding tactical awareness and without the services of 10 first-team players