{"id":37961,"date":"2023-09-20T16:00:18","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T16:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=37961"},"modified":"2023-09-20T16:00:25","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T16:00:25","slug":"felt-right-but-was-wrong-solskjaer-admits-signing-ronaldo-was-a-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/09\/20\/felt-right-but-was-wrong-solskjaer-admits-signing-ronaldo-was-a-mistake\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Felt right but was wrong\u2019: Solskj\u00e6r admits signing Ronaldo was a mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r has admitted that signing Cristiano Ronaldo when he was the Manchester United manager \u201cfelt right but was wrong\u201d and that he was let down by the egos of unnamed players, whose failure to pull together presaged his sacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Norwegian was in charge of United from 19 December 2018 until 21 November 2021, losing his position following a 4-1 loss at Watford the day before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Manchester<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summer 2021 Ronaldo joined the club for a second time at the age of 35. While the Portuguese scored twice against Newcastle in his opening game, a 4-1 victory, his addition unbalanced Solskj\u00e6r\u2019s team and after scoring nine times before the trip to Watford, the Norwegian lost his job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a decision that was very difficult to turn down and I felt we had to take it, but it turned out wrong,\u201d Solskj\u00e6r told The Athletic (\u00a3). \u201cIt felt so right when he signed and the fans felt that at that Newcastle game, when Old Trafford was rocking. He was still one of the best goalscorers in the world, he was looking strong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late October United lost 5-0 to Liverpool at Old Trafford and despite winning away 3-0 at Tottenham the following week, losses to Manchester City and Watford sealed Solskj\u00e6r\u2019s fate. \u201cWhen I looked at the fixtures it was going to be a deciding period,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen things didn\u2019t go right, you could see certain players and egos come out. We beat Tottenham convincingly 3-0 away, but then we lost two games.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solskj\u00e6r stated some of his squad had inflated views of themselves. \u201cThey weren\u2019t as good as their own perception of themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cI won\u2019t name names, but I was very disappointed when a couple turned down the chance to be captain. I was also disappointed when others said they wouldn\u2019t play or train because they wanted to force their way out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erik ten Hag, Solskj\u00e6r\u2019s replacement after the interim appointment of Ralf Rangnick, is enduring a tough start to the season, as United have lost three of their opening five matches. \u201cI know what he\u2019s going through. It\u2019s a dream job, but it\u2019s difficult,\u201d said Solskj\u00e6r. \u201cYou\u2019re dealing with humans with all their problems and backgrounds \u2013 this isn\u2019t a computer simulation. But most are good professionals who want to do well. Some think about No 1 first, most think of the club.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

source:theguardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r has admitted that signing Cristiano Ronaldo when he was the Manchester United manager \u201cfelt right but was wrong\u201d and that he was let down by the egos of unnamed players, whose failure to pull together presaged his sacking. The Norwegian was in charge of United from 19 December 2018 until 21 November […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":21276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[9951,11746,8924,9331,1791,5557,9026,7090,197,5721,10634,12791,11252,501,115,1717,7968,9157,170,11973,13256,11625,5872,194,8840,7333,723,9616,10885,1312,36,594],"class_list":["post-37961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-age","tag-appointment","tag-chance","tag-city","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-erik-ten-hag","tag-fans","tag-games","tag-liverpool","tag-losses","tag-lost","tag-manager","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-city","tag-manchester-united","tag-newcastle","tag-nine","tag-norwegian","tag-old-trafford","tag-one","tag-players","tag-professionals","tag-ralf-rangnick","tag-ronaldo","tag-strong","tag-summer","tag-tottenham","tag-train","tag-victory","tag-watford","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37987,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37961\/revisions\/37987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}