Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku faces an uncertain future at Stamford Bridge in the wake of his untoward comments made in the Italian media recently pointing a finger of blame at Sky Blues’ boss Thomas Tuchel. The recent chain of events has also vindicated former Manchester United gaffer Solskjaer for having taken the gamble of transfering out the striker.
Although Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s tenure would definitely not rank as one of the most successful ones in the history of Old Trafford, there were certain minor victories he did manage to achieve that could well add in some ways to the future success of the club.
Despite lacking the tactical nous required to take United to the next level, the Norwegian’s focus on nurturing youth talent gave many young hopefuls an opening to the XI, together with a steady squad overhaul giving United the necessary building blocks to reconstruct the squad for a genuine title challenge. He also managed to reinstill a large part of the club philosophy and vibes, ultimately making the club a much happier place to be around compared to previous regimes since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
Although he had overstayed his welcome as manager, circumstances in the weeks since his sacking in November 2021 have shown that the former Molde manager was only one of the issues at Old Trafford and that a return to the top would definitely require more than mere reliance just a new manager as whoever takes charge on a permanent basis later this year will be inheriting inherit a fragmented squad, albeit one that has the individual quality required to win major honours.
Amid the numerous questionable calls made in the course of discharging his duties as manager, one of Solskjaer’s more ruthless calls made much earlier back has been clearly vindicated just this week, to his credit.
Chelsea’s unhappy striker Lukaku was left out of the mouth-watering clash with Liverpool on Sunday afternoon amid an ongoing saga at Stamford Bridge, which clearly saw him undermine manager Tuchel less than half a year since re-joining the club for a club-record £97.5m fee.
Chelsea had hoped that his arrival would be the definitive piece in their jigsaw as they look to reclaim the Premier League title, but on the contrary his return has instead put the boat on an uneven keel and may even end their title hopes early as they continue to fall further behind Man City.
In the same vein as United’s past failures being impacted by their pursuit of players with massive individual egos rather than selfless players who prioritise squad wholeness and playing as a unified team, Chelsea have of late been exposed to public embarrassment by a self-glorifying striker who could only muster up seven goals in 18 appearances this season at best and is now disrupting the harmony with his pot calling the kettle black routine.
Speaking with the United We Stand fanzine two years ago, Solskjaer had thrown caution to the winds and openly stated he would rather have a “hole in the squad than an a***hole”, going on to insist there was no longer a “bad apple” at the club and it was pretty obvious whom he had been alluding to as things had not been kosher at Old Trafford between Solskjaer and Lukaku, with the subsequent summer overhaul in 2019 leading to the latter and Alexis Sanchez leaving the club. To the Norwegian’s credit, the exit of the two was followed by a clear change in attitude and a positive mentality being instilled.
Furthermore, although Solskjaer had taken a big risk by selling Lukaku and had faileld to replace him with another senior striker, th is turn of events actually gave academy starlet Mason Greenwood the much-needed opportunity to shine.
“Mason Greenwood’s pathway would have been a lot more different if we had another forward there,” Solskjaer told reporters at the time. “I believe Mason is going to be playing and involved a lot, and when he is, he’s going to score goals.”
With 34 goals in 124 appearances, it is safe to say the Greenwood gamble more than paid off for United. It doesn’t look like the much more expensive Lukaku risk will do so for Chelsea.
Solskjaer may have gotten a lot of things messed up during his tenure at Old Trafford as the manager, but his decisive handling of the backbiting Belgian striker most certainly wasn’t one of them.
In fact, Tuchel could do well in taking a leaf from the Norwegian’s playbook in this area.