' Solskjaer next Man United manager if he does well '

Wales online

Paul Abbandonato: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could become next Manchester United manager by doing well with Cardiff City
Thursday 9th Jan 2014.

Head of Sport Paul Abbandonato takes a look at what the future holds for new Cardiff City manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer


Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is still a hero at Manchester United

In just over two weeks time, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer takes his Cardiff City team up to Old Trafford where he will be given a rapturous ovation by adoring Manchester United fans.

He will, of course, be in the Bluebirds dugout, professional hat firmly on as Solskjaer tries to pile on the agony further for David Moyes’ strugglers.

Considering he hasn’t yet taken charge of a since Premier League match, this may seem an outrageously outlandish statement to make, but I’m wondering if Solskjaer might actually be manager in the home dugout a couple of years down the line.

Actually, is it really such an off the wall prediction?

We are, of course, getting way ahead of ourselves. But shine as manager of the Bluebirds and you watch Solskjaer become red-hot favourite to be the man who replaces the man who took over from THE man.

Everything we hear about the Old Trafford hierarchy indicates Moyes will be given time to get things right after inheriting football’s mission impossible in trying to fill Sir Alex Ferguson’s boots.

Let’s just say the task will be a darned sight easier for Moyes’ successor than it has been for Moyes himself.

So, could that man one day be Solskjaer?

There are certain managers you just get, shall we call it, a vibe about. I sensed it with Roberto Martinez and Brendan Rodgers when they were managing arch-rivals Swansea.

Solskjaer hasn’t even been in the Cardiff job for a full week as I pen these words, but I have that similar sense that he too is destined for bigger things.

Everything about Solskjaer smacks of potential future Manchester United manager and if he can perform the type of job we hope he will here in the Welsh capital, then that crescendo will grow.



Given Ferguson was at the United helm for 27 years, he brought through lots of players who were tipped to go from the Old Trafford Boot Room to managing the club.

One by one most of the Fergie acolytes have fallen by the wayside.

Mark Hughes managed Manchester City and has seen his own stock fall. Roy Keane famously fell out with Ferguson. Steve Bruce, while doing a splendid job with Hull, isn’t mentioned any more as a United boss.

Gary Neville, one of Ferguson’s old skippers, was viewed as a leader of men, but opted instead for a new career in TV.

Which, if they one day with to reappoint from within, as such, leaves the Old Trafford hierarchy with two options. One is Ryan Giggs, the other Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Regular readers of this column will know I’m a huge admirer of Giggs and have heavily advocated him as Wales manager.

But even though Giggs is in situ on the Manchester United coaching set-up, going away from Old Trafford and actually joining Ryan’s home-town Bluebirds is probably giving Solskjaer more of an edge.

He went from managing Manchester United reserves, to winning League titles in his Norwegian homeland, to turning down various job offers to accepting the post with the Bluebirds.

In football Boardrooms across Europe, Solskjaer is clearly highly-rated.

And while, given his freshness in the post, the jury has to be out on him as a Premier League manager, I really do think the Bluebirds could have struck gold.

Solskjaer couldn’t have made a better start, on an off the pitch. On it, his two substitutions turned a likely 1-0 FA Cup loss at Newcastle into a 2-1 triumph, Craig Noone and Fraizer Campbell scoring.

Talk about pupil learning from the master, Solskjaer himself having become something of a super-sub under Fergie.

Off the field, Solskjaer has brought a calmness, authority and excitement back to a club which was lurching through crises.

Malky Mackay will never be forgotten and will always have vocal backers. But the more I talk to Bluebirds fans, the more I sense the silent majority wanted a more offensive brand of football from their team and that they are comfortable with the change of manager.

Under Solskjaer, who pledges to get men forward and who will urge his team to keep the ball, they will get that more vibrant style of play.

I find it fascinating that Solksjaer’s first transfer targets have been Magnus Woolf Eikrem, signed yesterday, and Mats Moller Daehli, two of his former Molde midfielders.

Personally, I would have thought midfield is one of the strong points of this Cardiff team.

In particular I like the triumvirate of Gary Medel, Jordon Mutch and Kim Bo-Kyung which stand-in boss David Kerslake used against Sunderland.

The blend and balance of that trio looks excellent. Medel the calming influence breaking up opposition moves, Mutch the swashbuckling runner who can charge forward to score goals, Kim the creative spark in the old fashioned No.10 role.

Throw Peter Whittingham into that mix, and you would have presumed the Bluebirds were adequately served in the midfield area.

Yet Solskjaer, I’m told, believes his team give the ball away too much and views Ekrem and Daehil as players who can keep possession better.

That is essential at Premier League level, because far too often this season Cardiff have been chasing shadows and forced to rely on the excellence of David Marshall and Steven Caulker to stop opposition teams running riot.

Solskjaer has bigger tests to face than an FA Cup game on Tyneside.

Like West Ham this weekend, for example, a proverbial six-pointer of a relegation battle. But his Cardiff City era has begun splendidly.

I bet in the coming months and years, the Manchester United hierarchy will be keeping a watching brief on the Bluebirds.

I hate Manchester United so much, what a bunch of arrogant, big headed, self entitled, plastic, glory hunting group of pricks

It seemes even though you hate Man United or not, you should hope for them to sack Moyes now. Surely OGS would turn them down at this point, he will be loyal to Cardiff and avoid relegation.

But if Moyes manages to sit through the season and OGS saves us, then it looks scary.

What a pointless, speculative article.


A sticky too. tsk.

Agree, pointless waste of ink.

No wonder less and less people buy that paper with sub standard reporters like this.

It's all bollocks IMO.

Ok, sub standard, agreed.

But do you really believe what you're saying? All bollocks?

OGS might not be jesus, and he might not have the midas touch, but he is heading for glory!

And personally, I truly believe that if Man United wait until end of season to replace Moyes, then OGS is lost for us.

Ok, sub standard, agreed.

But do you really believe what you're saying? All bollocks?

OGS might not be jesus, and he might not have the midas touch, but he is heading for glory!

And personally, I truly believe that if Man United wait until end of season to replace Moyes, then OGS is lost for us.

I can't see him lasting the season out...

Are you seriously touting OGS as the next manager at Old Trafford?!

Dreaming.

Moyes will be given until the end of next season in my opinion, and even if he can't get it right, he'll be replaced by someone a whole lot more experienced and high profile that OGS.

Yes, good sir. Seriously.

When OGS has saved Cardiff from relegation with attractive attacking football, possibly also beaten them at Old Trafford, he will have shown that he can succeed not only in Norway Mickey Mouse League. And as a young up and coming manager with ability and sky high potential, together with a legend status in Man United, I seriously believe he will be chosen.

So for bluebirds, Moyes should be replaced now.

You're way too optimistic to be a City fan. lol.

Well, a winner is solution oriented while a looser is busy thinking about problems. Time will tell.

I take it you're a winner, not a looser then?

Are you ITK?

1. Moyes will not be fired this summer
2. OGS will not take the job at Manchester this summer

why?

1. It took SAF more than 1 year to accomplish anything at old trafford
2. OGS wont be ready, he knows it, and understand that he will have to take Cardiff up to mid table before any OT offer will be given.

But the 3. year. Anything might happen.

If a Manager does really well and over achieves he could get a bigger job shocker

Yes, good sir. Seriously.

When OGS has saved Cardiff from relegation with attractive attacking football, possibly also beaten them at Old Trafford, he will have shown that he can succeed not only in Norway Mickey Mouse League. And as a young up and coming manager with ability and sky high potential, together with a legend status in Man United, I seriously believe he will be chosen.

So for bluebirds, Moyes should be replaced now.

I agree that the Norwegian League aint anything near the PL but we should not underestimate the teams he competed against in Norway.

When he took Molde to the euro League they knocked out Heerenveen with 4-1 over two games. Then they won both home and away against Stuttgart with 3-0 over two games.
Still they had hard competition until the last 2 rounds of the season to win the title.

Norway has a very exciting generation who knocked out England from the U21 championship in 2013 and lost to Spain in the semi finals. Eikrem scored the last goal to secure the win over England btw.

What he did in the Norwegian League was to take a team who had not won the title in 100 years to win it 2 times and 1 cup in 3 years.

No matter what the standard of the League is you got to have something special in you to take a team who has been shit for ages and turn them into winners in 2 of 3 attempts.

Good points.

Allthough it's harsh to say they've been shit for ages, if I remember correctly they had something special going on at the same time Rosenborg was at their best and met Juventus in Champions League quarter finals and stuff, so Molde only finished second all those years.