Manchester United deserves better!

By Godwin Odiko

It often takes more than a paragraph for Juan Mata to get his message across via his blog posts weekly. But after what looked like United’s ugliest display and result for some time, the Spaniard only needed just seven words to convey his message - “You deserve better. No more words needed”.

Looking at the one-line statement again, you will have to agree with Juan Mata, Manchester United fans deserve a lot better from their darling football club.

The club deserves better administrators, deserves better footballers and even deserves a better manager.

You have probably followed my tweets and previous blog posts where I approved of the appointment of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as the permanent manager and you thinking, ‘why is he suggesting that United deserves a better manager?’

Well, it’s simply the reality on the ground.

Manchester United used to have the best manager in the land in Sir Alex Ferguson, but that’s no more if we want to be brutally honest. The likes of Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool) and Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham) are far ahead of United’s current manager in terms of status or reputation.

In fact, even during United’s brilliant run under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer when he was still operating on an interim basis, a lot of the club’s fans and affiliates including Wayne Rooney insisted the board go for Mauricio Pochettino for the permanent job – as he looks the more proven as a manager.

Fast forward to today, and that school of thought still holds as much water as it held then, if not better.

And, of course, that doesn’t mean Solskjaer is the wrong appointment. It’s just simply stating the fact that the Norwegian manager isn’t up there yet as the best manager in the world until he proves it with Manchester United.

You watch how the manager has made a couple of wrong decisions in terms of tactics and selections in United’s recent games and it only highlights his inexperience as a manager at this level.

But no one ever gets to the top from the top. Everyone begins from the bottom and climb slowly up. Those mistakes are part of the experience he will need in building himself into being one of the best in the world. That’s if he will learn from every one of his mistakes, actually.

However, one thing is never in doubt about Solskjaer - and that is his determination to succeed as manager of Manchester United football club.

Of course, every manager that has coached the club after Ferguson retired wanted to succeed, but only Solskjaer from that list is a fan as well as a manager of the football club.

It’s one gizmo to view things as a manager and it’s another to see things from the perspective of a fan. Solskjaer combines those two when he is assessing issues that concern the football club. That’s why after every United defeat, you don’t just see him address the situation from a manager’s perspective alone, he also responds the way a fan will do.

I have stressed that the Norwegian can’t be judged on the basis of his calamitous stint as manager of Cardiff City. Even a Pep Guardiola as manager of that side will struggle as much. But instead, look at the way he revolutionized Molde as a football club in his native country.

Prior to him being appointed as manager of Molde, they haven’t won a single league title since 1994. But Solskjaer guided Molde to their first ever league triumph in 17 years in his first year in charge and went on to defend the title the following season.

And he is not just a local hero. Solskjaer has led Molde to the top of a Europa League group that had Fenerbahce, Ajax, and Celtic, playing a swashbuckling brand of football in the process.

The endearing thing about Solskjaer that is sort of placing him among the likes of Pep Guardiola is his willingness to see his team entertain as well as win.

However, it will take the former Manchester United striker time and financial backing to get the club back into where it used to be.

This actually brings the issue of the current players and the administrators at the club to the fore.

We can’t overemphasize the fact that Ed Woodward has been a disappointment at getting concrete footballing decisions right. He’s brilliant for the off-field matters, which is in helping the club make money as well as remain relevant in terms of financial prowess, but he is a complete disaster when asked to make on-field decisions.

For the football club to head the right track, the board needs to hire a competent football director to take those critical footballing decisions away from Woodward - someone that will come in and work hand in hand with the gaffer in getting the right recruitments.

Everyone is admiring Manchester City and Liverpool today, but those two are where they are right now at the pinnacle of English football due to getting in the right recruitments.

If we want to be realistic, it will take Solskjaer and whoever he will work with in terms of recruitment more than two summers to get the club heading the right path.

That means the fans need to be patient as you will sometimes need to go back to be able to propel forward properly. When you want the stone from your catapult to hit the target effectively, you will need to pull back the elastic band to give the stone enough force when it travels the distance forward.

The current Manchester United manager will need at least two summers to clear the deadwood and get in the right players (Getty Images) 

Look how long it took Liverpool to finally get to the level they’re at the moment. Their last league triumph came 29 years ago. But as soon as Jurgen Klopp came on board, they began to make steady progress per season – getting in the right recruitments as well. Today, they are only a Manchester City draw away from clinching the title and a win against Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid to make it a glorious double for the season.

While United might not need to wait for the same duration to get a title they last won six years ago, the fans will need to see encouraging signs along the way as Solskjaer looks to carry out what looks like a massive rebuild of a football club that has fallen critically apart.

You look at this current crop of players at United and they seem to give an impression as though they are doing the fans a favour by deciding to play for this football club. A lot of them put themselves first before considering the club. Those are the players Solskjaer needs to get rid of and replace with those who actually know what it means to play for the football club.

United needs players with the grit and passion as Liverpool’s duo of Andrew Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold; players that will play with the right attitude every time. Liverpool paid just £8 million to get Robertson; they didn’t even pay anything for Trent who came through the club’s ranks. Today both of them are in the PFA team of the season as a result of the immense role they played in getting Liverpool to this very enviable level.

Just goes to highlight that you often do not need to break the bank to get in the right players, you just need to do the right recruitments. 

Solskjaer will need to think outside the box to get in players that will always give their 100% on the pitch like Liverpool's Andrew Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold (Getty Images)

And identifying the right players isn’t an easy task so Solskjaer will need the best of hands in other to get the club signing the right players.

To tell how herculean this task of rebuilding is and how fatal it can be when you fail to get in the right crop of players, United have had to spend over £600m on signings since Ferguson retired only to be 29 points adrift of table-topping Manchester City heading into the final game of the season.

This rebuild will take time and might also need another £600m to achieve, but it’s about getting things right this time around for the desired betterment of the football club.

Follow and interact with me on Twitter by simply clicking on this handle: @GodwinOdiko