Ole Gunnar Solskjaer accused of hypocrisy by The Daily Mail’s Ian Ladyman – Man United News And Transfer News

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Former Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s recent live talk-in has left a leading reporter seething.

An Evening with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took place in Manchester on Friday 12th May and the Norwegian waxed lyrical about a number of issues at the club during the show.

One of the subjects covered by Solskjaer was the difference in players’ attitudes today compared to when he was a player.

“[We were] winners, who hated losing. They had a few fights, like you should do, after bad games. You had to shake each other up,” he said.

“If you do that to the boys now, they will get their dad, or their mum, or their agents… snowflakes.”

But The Mail’s Ian Ladyman is not impressed with what he heard from the club legend.

“For Solskjaer to now attempt to position himself as a man happy to call out his players and the Glazers is RISIBLE,” Ladyman argues.

“Players still take the lead from their managers and when United’s looked at Solskjaer during his three years in charge what did they see? Did they see a man standing tall and making big decisions? Did they see a risk-taker, an innovator and a genuine leader?

“Or did they see a bloke trading in part off a reputation forged as a player whilst his version of a United team drifted along weighed down by baggage such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Pogba and Edinson Cavani that he was either too scared – or too blind – to try and shift?”

Harsh, perhaps, but Ladyman has a point. Cuddly Ole did not stand up to executive vice chairman, Ed Woodward, or the board, or the owners, when decisions were made above his head.

Solskjaer also said in his soirée that owners, the Glazers, need to leave and basically that they had let the club go to ruin. But he said nothing against them while he was manager.

“But for Solskjaer to now attempt to position himself as a crusader, a seeker of truth and a man happy to call out his former players and the club’s owners the Glazers for under-investment in the club’s facilities is risible simply because he was exactly the opposite back when his voice would have carried an awful lot more weight,” Ladyman says.

“Ronaldo, for example, was a drain on all the good things a dressing room needs. Solskjaer played him. Pogba was unhappy and by this stage of his second spell at the club, pretty much a lost soul and wasted talent. Solskjaer never addressed it.”

It’s unclear why Solskjaer decided to star in this slightly awkward one-man show in Piccadilly Gardens. Does he miss the limelight? Is he putting himself in the shop window? Does he need the money? Or is he trying to say the things he should have said back then?

“All the wise after the event stuff is probably best left in his locker,” Ladyman says.

“And he needs to be careful when he talks about snowflakes because when he looks in the mirror he may see a version of one staring back.”

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