THE omens for a trip to Merseyside have not been good for Manchester United managers of late.
David Moyes literally had the Grim Reaper on his shoulder at Goodison Park when he took charge everof his last game on Sunday, April 20, 2014.
Paddy Power’s fancy-dress figure by the away dugout was the picture that went with the following day’s reports of the 2-0 defeat at his old stomping ground – and the official news on Tuesday morning that he was gone after ten months.
Next up Louis van Gaal and across Stanley Park at Anfield, a 2-0 Europa League defeat by Liverpool on March 10, 2016, convinced the United board a change had to be made at the end of the season.
Yes, they won the FA Cup and even if they had attained a top-four finish as well, LVG’s fate was already decided on the back of that result.
Jose Mourinho’s final act as United boss was to oversee a 3-1 defeat, again at Anfield, on December 16, 2018, just seven months after the club had finished second and reached another FA Cup final.
Now Ole Gunnar Solskjaer heads to Goodison tomorrow with his future on the line.
In a week when the world has been obsessed with polling, it is not the results from Pennsylvania and Florida that will concern the Norwegian.
It is the ones from Red Issue and United We Stand, the club’s two main online fanzines.
The first showed 66 per cent wanted Solskjaer to go, the latter, 56 per cent.
Now, while the votes where in hundreds rather than thousands, it was still not good.
Yesterday the Manchester Evening News announced that Mauricio Pochettino had been approached to replace Old Trafford legend Ole.
Not so, claimed the club.
However, United also told the same paper Mourinho was safe, a story they duly printed on the day he was sacked.
The truth has always been that Pochettino remains the best alternative if Solskjaer fails – and the Argentine would love the job.
The question is whether 47-year-old Solskjaer is failing?
Based on the last two games against Istanbul Basaksehir and Arsenal, yes.
But based on the previous two in the Champions League, a 2-1 win over Paris Saint-Germain and 5-0 destruction of RB Leipzig, he is not.
And based on last season, when they finished third in the Premier League and reached three semi-finals, he is going in the right direction.
Based on their four home league games this season, he is not.
Before the 2-1 defeat on Wednesday to Istanbul, United had won ten straight away games for the first time in their history.
They were unbeaten in 18 away from home going back to a 2-0 defeat at Liverpool in January – their best run since 1999.
So if the board are judging him over a decent length of time and thinking long-term, which is what United still claim they want to do, then he is safe.
But for a club that holds so much store by social-media numbers, another bad performance and the pressure could be enormous to make a change with an international break to sort things out.
So you start all over again – another new manager, another change of staff, more money spent on the players he wants, rather than the ones he has inherited.
Another bright, new dawn, before it proves a false one, another corner turned before ending up back at square one.
But former Tottenham boss Poch is the answer, apparently.
He has never won a trophy as a manager and won just seven of his last 26 games in charge at Spurs before being replaced by Mourinho – the bloke United sacked before appointing Solskjaer.
The 48-year-old Argie has not had a job for two weeks short of a year now. Then he pops up on Sky this week and says he is ready to go.
United still back Ole but clubs always have contingency plans when things start to wobble.
The Red Devils did with Van Gaal, long before Moyes went.
They did with Mourinho before Van Gaal went and likewise Solskjaer before Mourinho was axed.
The only thing that stops that contingency plan being put into operation is results.
Solskjaer needs some and quick, starting on Saturday.
Win at Everton and he can breathe a sigh of relief and hope United come out the next international break as they did the last one with three impressive wins from four.
Merseyside did not think it would have to wait 30 years for a top-flight title to return there.
United were adamant they would never follow suit. But it has been seven years now, it will stretch to eight and there is every chance it will go beyond that.
Every team they beat to their last title under Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013 is better than them.
Still, their lean years have brought an FA Cup, EFL Cup, Europa League and a second-placed Premier League finish.
Pochettino would have taken any one of those.
He did get to a Champions League final, though, and Spurs were awful in it.
But he is the answer, it appears, just as Van Gaal was, then Mourinho and Solskjaer himself.
Ole is still at the wheel, as it stands. But United keep going round and round in circles.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sportingexcitement.com/football/premier-league/gareth-southgate-reveals-nobody-is-seriously-challenging-jordan-pickford-as-england-no1-despite-derby-row
