Chasing fourth ‘undignifying’, says former Man United star
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Former Manchester United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has bemoaned the current state of affairs at Old Trafford saying talk of chasing a top four place is not good enough.
United are currently six points adrift of the top four and on the brink of an embarrassing Europa League exit at the hands of Danish minnows FC Midtjylland and fan favourite Solskjaer is fearful for the future.
Talking on Olof Lundh’s fotbollskanlen.se podcast the man known as the baby-faced assassin among the Stretford End masses said: “I am very disappointed in the quality over the past few years. We knew it would be tough after the Ferguson era but we have not managed to keep the enthusiasm and the entertaining, attacking football.
“It is very tough to see Manchester City managing to get Pep Guardiola and sign the biggest stars in Europe. I am a big fan of Guardiola and his philosophy and all his teams. So now United have to pull themselves together. They are heading for a very difficult time.”
Speculation is rife that Louis van Gaal is just days away from the axe, with Jose Mourinho the odds-on favourite to take over.
However, Solskjaer has warned that whoever takes the helm at Old Trafford needs to do more than just improve on the showings of Van Gaal and David Moyes as United are too big a club to be content with chasing a spot among the Champions League places.
“We are used to winning. We are used to finishing first. We are used to entertaining the fans. If we finished second it was a disappointing season, now the talk is about finishing fourth. It is undignifying for a club like Manchester United,” he added.
United are currently priced at 4/1 to finish in the top four, behind Arsenal, Tottenham, Leicester and City in the betting and Van Gaal faces an uphill struggle to secure a place at Europe’s top table next season.
More pressing an issue is the trip to Shropshire to take on League One’s Shrewsbury in the FA Cup tonight.
While the Red Devils are billed as 3/10 favourites the football world will watch with baited breath to see if the Shrews can oblige at odds of 9/1 and finally put LVG out of his misery.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
