Ole Gunnar Solskjaer won the first proxy battle to become the next permanent Manchester United manager. Now he’s winning the next one, too.
Earlier this month, the interim United boss led his side to victory over Tottenham and Mauricio Pochettino, the man widely tipped to be the favourite for the Old Trafford hot seat in the summer. While the United board were never going to pick Solskjaer over Pochettino simply on the basis of one head-to-head result, the events that have transpired since have strengthened the incumbent’s case.
It’s not just that Solskjaer has continued his perfect start, stretching it to nine wins from nine since he took over from Jose Mourinho. Nor is it the fact that all of United’s key attacking players have rediscovered top form, and Solskjaer has this side playing in the attacking style that befits Manchester United.
All of those are good reasons to trust Solskjaer would do a good job if given the role on a permanent basis, but none of those have anything to do with Pochettino. Where the Norwegian is winning that particular battle, for now, is in front of the media.
Last Friday, Solskjaer masterminded a classic United win over Arsenal, in the FA Cup. Two days later, Tottenham crashed out of the competition with a loss to Crystal Palace, their second cup exit in four days after last Thursday’s Carabao Cup semi-final loss to Chelsea.
The lack of trophies during his time in charge of Tottenham has been a key criticism against Pochettino, and in the aftermath of this disastrous run of exits, the Argentine seemed to have finally cracked.
“Again we’re going to have the debate whether a trophy will take the club to the next level” he said in the aftermath of the defeat. “I don’t agree with it. It only builds your ego. The most important thing for Tottenham right now is to always be in the top four.”
The last part of his statement is completely true. Spurs would no doubt love to be celebrating their much-delayed move into a new stadium with a trophy, but the fact of the matter is that reaching the last 16 of the Champions League, as Tottenham have done in each of the last two seasons, is worth over ten times more, financially speaking, than winning the FA Cup.
Prize money for winning the FA Cup: £6.6m. Approximate prize money for making the last 16 of this season’s Champions League: £70m. (Doesn’t include ticketing, marketing bonuses etc)
— Raphael Honigstein (@honigstein) January 27, 2019
For a team which has taken on the huge investment of building and moving into a new stadium, that financial boost is worth much more than adding a trophy.
Solskjaer has the advantage of speaking from a position of privilege in this particular debate. It would indeed be disastrous for the club not to finish in the top four, not just for the money but for the hit to the club’s reputation, but this is not a club that needs the immediate cash injection of a top-four finish – though of course it is a different story for the club’s owners, the Glazers, whose 2005 purchase of United saddled the club with a huge debt to pay off.
But as the club continue to perform well from a perspective of operational revenue, and can expect, on the off chance they finish outside the top four, a quick return to the Champions League – they’ve never been out of the competition for two consecutive seasons – Solskjaer can wax lyrical about the importance of winning trophies, which is what he did on Monday when the same question that prompted Pochettino’s memorable answer was put to him.
“We’ve got the Champions League, we’ve got the FA Cup, we can’t just say top four and that’s it,” he said. “We’ve got to look at ‘can we win something this year?’ and I go into every single game as a Man United manager thinking we can win this game.”
Solskjaer: "If you win trophies, that's a fantastic day for everyone in the club. It's just the best time of your life, that day when you win because you never know when the next one is going to come. The manager always said whatever trophy you win, you have just got to enjoy it"
— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) January 28, 2019
Again, the caveats of the different contexts from which both managers are speaking do apply. But for a board which has a decision to make within a few months, perhaps specifically between these two men, which one sounds better?
The United board will be well aware of the financial constraints under which Pochettino has to work. At the moment, however, he’s not the one who projects the ambition and arrogance of a United manager. Solskjaer does.
