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Former Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has spoken out on his time at the club and lamented the failure to capture three key players who have since gone on to become genuine superstars of the game.
Speaking to SkySport’s The Overlap YouTube channel, Solskjaer spoke about the club’s failure to capture the signings of Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland.
Discussing the now Arsenal midfielder Rice he claimed, “I really really like him as a player. We would have done well with him in midfield. I think his legs, he’s improved a lot in his playmaking”.
When questioned if the club could have realistically brought the then West Ham player into the team he said, “yeah, he was available. Obviously he would have cost some money, we could have and should have gone for him”.
The Real Madrid starlet, Jude Bellingham, was the next player to be brought up.
The Englishman was famously given a tour around Carrington as United pulled out all the stops to sign the then Birmingham City midfielder but it was not to be as he opted for a move to Borussia Dortmund instead.
“He was in the building”. Explaining the effort that United made to impress the player he claimed, “I was obviously there as the manager. Sir Alex was there. Roy [Keane] should have been there. Bryan Robson was there and Cantona was there the day when he came to the club, so we all spoke to him”.
“Of course we sold it (the club) to him as well as we could”.
However, the Norwegian commented that the only thing the then 17 year old was interested in was guaranteed playing time.
“He knew what he wanted. X amount of minutes in the first team. 17 at the time. The most mature 17 year old that I’ve ever met in my life”.
Finally, the treble winner opened up on the club’s failed attempts to bring in his compatriot, Erling Haaland. This one probably stings the most as he would end up at cross-city rivals Manchester City a few years later and would be instrumental in the Citizen’s own treble win.
Ole was the striker’s manager when they were both at Molde and he claimed, “the summer before I got there [United], I rang the club and told them you have to sign this boy, he’s absolutely top class”.
The advice fell on deaf ears however and the Red Devils made no real attempt to sign him.
Solskjaer stated that as soon as he became caretaker manager he “told the club straight away to sign him. Sign him now because he has a release clause for €20m and no one else would have paid that money”.
“It was the club’s decision not to go for him”.
The former United coach was heavily backed in the market with the signings of Bruno Fernandes, Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane and no manager gets every player they ask for. However, it is not hard to imagine that had United been able to bring in Rice, Bellingham and Haaland, his fate would probably have been quite different at the club he loves.
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