How is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer still employed?
Hint: it has nothing to do with his football tactics.
A few weeks ago, I was brushing my teeth at night, pondering the question “how is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer still employed?” After much pondering and teeth brushing, I had a “lightbulb” moment that revealed the answer to this question.
In the span of only a few weeks, Manchester United got absolutely smashed by bitter rivals Liverpool 5–0, at home, pulled off yet another late miracle against a battered-up Atalanta, and then simply showed up to a Manchester City keep-away training session. It’s not crazy to think that most other managers, especially United managers of the past, would’ve been sent packing immediately after the humiliation delivered by Liverpool. Despite the bad animosity generated from that defeat, whether it was from fans, or media pundits, the United board has still decided to keep Ole employed. What is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s secret, that he can have multiple bad results in a row, at a club like Manchester United, and still somehow remain supported by the United board? The answer to this question lies in understanding Ole Gunnar, as a person.
From the distance of my television and my phone screen, Ole seems like a very likeable guy (unless you’re Donny Van De Beek or Jaden Sancho). He comes to work, does his job, and goes home, usually without a fuss. In his 3 years plus charge, I only remember two incidents where Ole got bothered enough to cause a fuss. One was against Chris Wilder and Sheffield United, where the two managers got into an argument on the touchline, which Ole was very quick to apologize for, post-match. The second incident I remember is the back and forth argument done through the media, with Jürgen Klopp, about United’s preferential penalty treatment by the referees. Both of these incidents died out quickly because Ole refused to further enrich the narrative, and herein lies the secret to why he is still employed.
Both by the nature of his personality and the sheer smarts and experience of being around football his entire life, Ole doesn’t fuel the fire of the Premier League media’s or fans torches. This is why he is still employed, despite poor results on the pitch. A bad result on the pitch? Ole attends the post-match press, accepts the blame on himself, and moves on. There’s hardly been a time during his tenure where he gave the English media or fans a juicy tidbit to hold against him in the future. He’s not blamed the refs, singled out his players, going on social media to write a 10-page apology post (he doesn’t even have social media, according to what I’ve heard him say) or fuelled the fire against the opposing manager or his respective players. He’s taken his lumps and moved, often very quietly. It’s, quite frankly, a genius tactic, that doesn’t get enough media attention because it doesn’t generate juicy narratives.
He doesn’t provide the club, the media, any ammunition to use against him when things are going sour on the pitch. So no matter how bad the result is on the pitch, the pitchforks, both from the Premier League media and from fans on social media, only burn bright for a week or so, before they slowly die down. You can only be so mad at someone before you move on to something else. Liverpool trashed United, all the pitchforks came out asking for Ole to be sacked, Ole, in turn, didn’t fuel the flames of a bad defeat, and eventually, people moved on. It’s not to say people have forgotten about the defeat, just the heat to get rid of Ole, has died down, to an extent, because Ole himself, doesn’t fuel it. He’s given his doubters nothing to hold against him, when it comes to him as a person.
In this area alone, he outclasses elite managers like José Mourinho and Antonio Conte, who both love to speak their minds, especially when they are faced to answer the media’s scrutiny after a bad defeat. The passion, blame, and frustration they usually express in earnest to the media, is used to create juicy tidbits that quickly spiral into “he’s toxic for the dressing room” narratives, which becomes a catalyst to their eventual sackings. These labels follow managers like Jose and Conte wherever they go and when things start going south for them at a new club, these same labels come back to haunt them. Ole has learned sometimes it’s best to just accept the defeat and move on, without saying too much.
Should football managing not work out, Ole would make an outstanding politician. The composure and professionalism he displays after a bad result or when he’s under great scrutiny, rivals that of the best of the best politicians. I do happen to feel this is something Ole actively displays, in other words, he knows exactly what he is doing, it’s not just his personality. After all, he’s been around the game for most of his life, and he knows how a manager should act in front of the cameras, after a tough defeat, and that is to not give the media or his doubters any ammunition to use against him. For how long his ability to manipulate the media to work for him, holds up, against his team’s poor results on the pitch, will remain to be seen.
