A report has claimed that some Man Utd players felt they were learning more from Edinson Cavani and Cristiano Ronaldo than Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s coaching team.
Solskjaer lost his job earlier on Sunday following their embarrassing 4-1 defeat to newly-promoted Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday.
The loss to Hornets was their fifth defeat in seven Premier League matches with Man Utd slipping down to eighth in the standings.
Ole is no longer at the wheel, but who will Man Utd appoint?
The Red Devils have only won three of their last 11 fixtures in all competitions and defeat against Claudio Ranieri’s outfit proved to be the final straw for the Man Utd board.
By adding Jadon Sancho, Raphael Varane and Ronaldo in the summer transfer window, expectations had risen to an all-time high under Solskjaer with his team seen as title challengers.
However, that vision quickly unraveled when they were destroyed at home by rivals Liverpool and Man City before the international break.
And now the Daily Telegraph claim they have the ‘inside story’ of Solskjaer’s demise at Old Trafford with one ‘senior executive at a rival Premier League club expressed astonishment that United had awarded Solskjaer a new three-year contract in the summer’.
In recent gloomy times, Man Utd duo Ronaldo and Cavani ‘sought to lead by example and some players feel they have learnt more at times from tapping into that pair’s well of knowledge, professionalism and expertise than on the training pitch’.
The same report claimed that Eric Bailly, who was left on the bench for Harry Maguire in their 4-2 loss to Leicester last month, asked Solskjaer why he had selected a defender ‘who was not fit’.
Meanwhile, Gary Neville says Solskjaer has “rebuilt the soul” of Man Utd but admits the time had come for the club to replace his former team-mate and believes Mauricio Pochettino is the ideal long-term candidate.
Neville told Sky Sports: “Ole will reflect with sadness but he can be proud of the work he did in the first two years. He rebuilt the soul of the club, the club was in a dark place at the end of the Jose Mourinho era.
“Ole can’t complain, he’s been given three years, he’s been backed in the transfer market. David Moyes was given eight months and kicked out, so I don’t think Ole can complain about the time he’s been given and the money he’s been afforded.”