“It’s a funny old game” — commented the former England striker Jimmy Greaves, the scorer of 357 goals in 516 league matches during his professional career.
Why did he call the game, clearly football, funny?
Well, he might have foreseen the current state of Manchester United football club.
With just three matches being played in the Premeir League, the manager of a reputed English side is widely speculated to get replaced by some else sooner than later, isn’t it funny?
From a neutral point of view, it could be amusing. If you are a Mancunian zealot, you are having a tough time for sure as the club is really struggling to keep their feet on the European soil.
The saying of ‘how far the mighty have fallen’ has started to become significant with each passing week.
The pages of history are being turned again and again to showcase where the Norwegian has come from to grab the hot seat at the ‘Theater of Dreams’.
His highly unsuccessful stint at Cardiff and then an insignificant spell as the manager of Molde FK have now shifted into the two of the most used points by those pleading for the departure of their former striker.
From that darling night at the Parc des Princes to the hellish afternoon under the shade of Old Trafford, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has had amassed both good and bad memories thus far.
His recent 6-1 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur was encapsulated by the manager himself as ‘the worst day I’ve had as a Manchester United manager and player’.
And then comes the transfer window that leaves more questions than answer regarding the future of Manchester United as a football club ahead of a hectic 2020-21 season of football.
One of those questions understandably would be, ‘should Ole Gunnar Solskjaer continue as the manager of Manchester United?’
Without dealing with the fact whether he is competent enough or not to hold the holy baton for so long, let us first look at his numbers as a Man United gaffer.
As per the data provided by Transfermarkt, since taking over the managerial job at Manchester United, Solskjaer has had managed 96 matches in total, winning 53, drawing 19, and losing 23 games of football.
His Man United side has averaged 1.87 points per match, having scored 175 goals and conceded 101 goals in all competitions.
If you find it hard to judge a manager without comparison, here we have the managerial stats of Jurgen Klopp, the Premeir League and Champions League winner with Liverpool, to make a suitable comparison.
As the manager of Liverpool, Klopp has had led the Reds to 270 matches. The German, however, has garnered 2.04 points per match to date, having won 165 matches, drawn 19, and lost 48. Over the last five years, his team has had pocketed 593 and conceded 309 goals.
In conclusion, although the numbers are clearly leaning towards Jurgen Klopp and his beloved Liverpool, Solskjaer’s 1.87 points per match are not that shocking in compare to Klopp’s 2.04.
While there are certain negatives we could point out in order to criticize the Norwegian from his time at Manchester United, there are also loads of positive we could talk about to ease the emerging chaos.
Amidst the financial conundrum enforced by the coronavirus pandemic, the manager has tried his best to cut off those sucking humungous wages for nothing, having sold the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Chris Smalling and sent Andreas Pereira on loan to SS Lazio.
There went apparent progress by the end of the 2019-20 campaign where United finished third to wrap up the Champions League spot and ended up being semi-finalists in three competitions.
But the horrendous transfer window followed by the shambolic first few weeks of the camping after what was the shortest pre-season in the club’s history has made a free passage for those ‘next manager’ rumours to re-emerge.
While handing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer the managerial job, the board might have known that success won’t come and knock on the door over a year and it would be a long-term process.
Signing Amad Traore and Facundo Pellistri on the deadline day of the summer transfer window looks like a notion of that long-term faith and the current situation seems to be the part of that long-term approach.
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