It was only a few short months ago when many of Old Trafford’s diehard foot ball fans were up in arms against the owners and executive vice-president Ed Woodward for the embarassing slump in form of the squad that had gone largely unremedied by manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. However, in recent months the incorrigible Norwegian has bounced back like the redoubtable rubber ball and effectively begun his overhaul of the squad, with appreciably impressive results.
I never believed I’d ever be caught saying this but suffice it to say that Manchester United have indeed turned a corner in recent months under the leadership of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with the Red Devils boss looking like he isn’t ready to stop anytime soon to rest on his laurels.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has rolled back his sleeves and is evidently more than ready to continue his overhaul of the Red Devils team this summer. In fact, news has it that he is ready to bite the bullet and potentially bring the axe to five players if he is not left with any choices to do otherwise to maintain the momentum going into next season.
In his defense, Solskjaer inherited something of an unholy mess at Old Trafford when he stepped into Jose Mourinho’s smelly shoes in 2018 at a time when the Old Trafford club was already bursting at the seams with ageing superstars on huge money yet unable to put in the performances to warrant such the hefty wages.
After a heavily beleaguered passage of time following a very brisk honeymoon beginning, Solskjaer was forced to dig deep, innovate and then shifted his priority to signing younger although lesser-known players, and focus on bulking them up to achieve their potential for the new season, with Daniel James being one of the best examples.
Solskjaer has also shown that he isn’t at all afraid of getting his hands dirty and getting negative acclaim for what he has set his sets on, like splashing serious cash in landing the likes of Harry Maguire for £80million and Aaron Wan-Bissaka for £50million, despite being lambasted by his detractors.
Solskjaeer himself knows only too well that all the outgoing heavy expenditure means he needs to immediately find aan way to balance the books. This he does expeditiously by offloading players, which works well also to give the pliable Norwegian the chance to remove stars that don’t fit into his way of playing in the aquad he is planning to build.
Sticking to his guns in his determination to sign the key players that he needs to restructure his strike force after recruiting Bruno Fernandes and Odion Ighalo, Soskjaer is reported to be willing to release five players whose futures are uncertain at Old Trafford this summer. According to the Manchester Evening New, these are Phil Jones, Jesse Lingard, Andreas Pereira, Chris Smalling, and Alexis Sanchez.
Jones has evidently been struggling to impress Solskjaer ever since he took over as boss, and has been on a downward spiral following the signing of Harry Maguire, while Lingard’s form has been touch and go at best, with him and Pereira finding it increasingly difficult to find first team opportunities in recent months.
Smalling and Sanchez are currently out on loan at Roma and Inter Milan, respectively and despite both being big money earners, are definitely not part of Solskjaer’s plans and could be left with no options but to join their loan clubs permanently at the end of the season.
Credit is due the Old Trafford manager for his feistiness and obduracy in persisting to what he’s been believing in and fighting for the last few months without digressing from his plans for an overhaul of his first team squad in the face of all opposition and pressure he’d been facing to be cowed into submission.
Perhaps we can now see some real football returning to the elite club that’s dominated English football for decades and thrilled diehard fans the world over.
Keep up the great work, Ole!