Jonathan Northcroft of The Sunday Times says Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will give Manchester United the cheapest option when looking for Jose Mourinho’s permanent successor.
Solskjaer was appointed on an interim basis and has led United to an eight-match winning streak including trips to Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspurs. They won both matches in London and Northcroft believes the Norwegian stands the prime position to get the job permanently.
“They’re probably patting each other on the backs in the United boardroom and saying how clever it was plotting this great interim manager experiment which is working so well. It’s been an enormous stroke of luck and it’s put them in this incredibly good position where, when Mourinho went they were looking at a very difficult expedition to try and get Pochettino from Spurs – which I think maybe what they still try and do – but I think they’ve got another candidate that is doing so exceptionally well.” Northcroft told Sunday Supplement.
The football expert added that the former United forward has used the success playbook book that was used by Sir Alex Ferguson to turn things around at Old Trafford. Senior players were known not to be happy during Mourinho’s tenure.
“There is something that seems magical about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer being Manchester United manager, something that seems to fit. You don’t have to be a United fan to smile when you see him, but there is substance to it. It’s not all smiles, patting people on the back and telling them to go and enjoy themselves. He knows what it took to win trophies in Sir Alex Ferguson’s era and he’s using the playbook that brought a lot of success. Against Arsenal, he talked about the structure of the defense that was better than before.” Northcroft explained.
“He had a gameplan to have bodies defending the box and then breaking really quickly, which they did time and again in Fergie’s era and won games. As long as he keeps doing what he was brought up to do under Ferguson, keeps this feel-good factor and really expensive players as happy as they are, he just becomes more and more unarguable as a candidate, and given how difficult it would be to get Pochettino, you could save yourself a lot of bother and £50m in compensation by going for what’s in front of you.” the expert concluded.
Man United will know their FA Cup fifth round opponents on Monday when the draw is expected to be conducted.