SOLSKJAER THE SCAPEGOAT FOR A FAILED RECRUITMENT POLICY
Manchester United's travails continue with their latest debacle a 1-0 loss to an ebullient Newcastle which left the Red Devils in the bottom half of the table. Days earlier they failed to register a shot on target in a drab 0:0 Europa League draw away to AZ Alkmaar.
How times change. One defeat in his first 17 games and a thrilling Champions League defeat of PSG was more than an adequate audition for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to get the manager's job at Old Trafford last Spring.
But now the Midas touch has deserted him: With only two wins in 13 matches, United look a mediocre side who have slipped below even the level of the disjointed and untelepathic team which Jose Mourinho struggled for so long to control.
Derided at the time for being surly when at the helm, the Portuguese's comments on the Man United malaise have taken on the tag of wisdom with the passage of time.
Unlike a Barcelona/Real Madrid weekly 'crisis', this is the real thing. United do not look like improving any time soon and arguably the biggest club in the world could have a relegation fight on their hands.
The reasons are not elusive. Manager honeymoons do not last. Staff always up their game to impress their new boss.
Key players are injured and their replacements are not as good; the youngsters are not performing at the level of Chelsea's young guns because they have not been loaned out enough - thrown into the fire they have burned; Paul Pogba has never been consistent; the senior players do not have the grit of Roy Keane or Peter Schmeichel, United lack a second tough centre back, a dominant midfield and goalscorers since Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez were sold.
Yet the bigger picture is of a flawed buying and selling policy over the years since Alex Ferguson left Old Trafford and managers should not take the blame for that. The absence of a football-schooled director of football overseeing it all and preventing such a shambles is clear too, a point made by another former Red Devils manager Louis Van Gaal.
Restocking the dressing room with new players is essential, but they need to be the right ones and the transfer window is closed anyway until January 2020, when other teams will surely demand top dollar from United, well aware the Red Devils are desperate for new blood.
This seller's market conflicts with the club budget, leaving frustrated managers to drop hints of dejection from the dug-out or just quit when they feel powerless to right the listing ship. Solskjaer is just the fall guy this time.
Because he is a returning hero and it is obvious any manager would struggle to forge a masterpiece with such inadequate tools, the Baby-Faced Assassin has a get out of jail free card, for now.
But it is also traditional that if bad results persist, it is the gaffer who takes the flack and gets the sack, around Christmas in time for the January transfer window.
He cannot openly name and cane the men in suits above him for not giving him the transfer budget he and the team need because they are his employers and they will fire him if he does.
Mourinho said as much when he noted,
"I don't want to be the nice guy, because the nice guy, after three months, is a puppet and that doesn't end well."
So while Solskjaer will probably struggle on, fail and then play the sacrificial victim, the Norwegian will probably mount the gallows an innocent man whose hands were always somewhat bound.
Head of Corporate Development (chief transfer negotiator) Matt Judge and Executive Vice-Chairman Ed Woodward, the men who really pull the strings, will probably carry on unscathed. Where is their accountability when the results on the pitch are poor?
The club's American owners are perhaps too distant, too ignorant of football and too pleased by the club's sound financial performance to realise there really is something rotten in the state of Old Trafford.
"To be the best football club in the world both on and off the pitch" proclaims the mother company's home page. Now who said satire was dead?
Man Utd plc's public relations are full of corporate talk of its brand's global appeal and its business strategy provides this as its opening gambit:
"We aim to increase our revenue and profitability by expanding our high growth businesses that leverage our brand, global community and marketing infrastructure."
Right, but how about winning football matches too? Increasing broadcasting and sponsorship revenues covered up declines from match days and merchandising in 2018 but overall the brand is in good financial shape.
There is just that small matter of the team on the pitch, that red-shirted eleven who are not winning games anymore and who have just slipped to within two points of the drop zone.
Shouldn't they be the top priority for everyone connected with Man United right now?
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(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile