Without acting decisively and asserting the authority that the club is barely clinging to, there is no ready-made solution to take Solskjaer’s ‘body of work’ to the next level. The board’s lack of appetite for a manager unafraid of confrontation has left them staring out into an empty field of candidates. “They were never going to appoint Conte, it was never going to happen, they were never going to consider it,” said Gary Neville on Saturday, which is an accurate summary of the situation, without actually asking the question: why the f*** not? Antonio Conte had all the credentials and was just waiting for United to pick up the phone, but instead he took Tottenham’s call. The absence of an ideal replacement would be fair mitigation for holding fire – if it were true. After being battered by Liverpool a fortnight ago, it seems they sounded out a number of managers, but with no consensus on a preferred replacement, they opted for inertia over action. The hierarchy has certainly considered making that call. The board, rather than Solskjaer himself, are using that familiarity and affection to insulate themselves from a tough-but-necessary decision. His former team-mates are contorting themselves not to suggest that he might be out of his depth. Solskjaer’s status as a club legend means the Old Trafford crowd won’t turn on him – their long and loud appreciation for Donny van de Beek is likely to be as close to dissent as you will hear from the Stretford End. His continued presence is by no means the only one. Solskjaer is flailing in the hot-seat and nothing we see or hear suggests he might have the answers to United’s many problems. Johnny Nic: Save your sympathy for someone other than a sacked PL manager They are whistling while this doesn’t work. Either way, be decisive. Instead, the club are sitting on their hands, neither sacking Solskjaer nor backing him. So the club has two choices: remove the manager or don’t. Solskjaer has done a very creditable job in lifting the spirit at the club and the team in the table, but for the next step, the trickiest of all, the former United striker evidently does not possess the managerial nous to take a talented-but-flaky group to where the club and the players feel they belong. The debate has raged ever since the smiling Norwegian skipped into Old Trafford and administered the antidote to Jose Mourinho’s Mogadon football. Their problem: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is not up to the task facing him and Manchester United. That is the only conclusion we can draw from the facts we have to hand.
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Norwich and Aston Villa have already taken advantage of the fortnight hiatus to make a change, but at Manchester United, the hierarchy are still shrugging shoulders waiting for someone else to come up with a solution.
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The only people who dread international breaks more than writers at middling football websites are under-the-cosh Premier League managers. Manchester United need to act decisively over their manager… For a fortnight during the international break, it’s open season on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.