No one will have been more ecstatic with Manchester United's 3-0 win over Tottenham at the weekend than Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The Norwegian boss was given a vote of confidence to still have the reigns after an embarrassing 5-0 defeat to Liverpool at Old Trafford a week before.
The Manchester United players may have redeemed themselves, at least for another week, but an ongoing disappointment in players and management could come to the fore again.
Speaking on The Stand podcast, Eamon Dunphy, John Giles and Liam Brady had their say on Ole's role and gave their thoughts on his most heavily rumoured successor.
Rumours suggest Antonio Conte could be on his way to London to join Tottenham, if they are to be believed. Dunphy, Giles and Brady think United won't have him.
An Ole Problem Or Glazer Problem?
When discussing the problems at Old Trafford, the three pundits aired confusion about the running of the club, in particular their transfer history.
"You just don't know what Solskjaer's plan is," Brady said. "They spent all this money for Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund and he hasn't had a look in. Van de Beek, the kid from Ajax, not a look in."
With over €120 million spent on the two players, neither have had much game time this season. "Why are they buying these players?" Brady asked. "There doesn't seem to be a strategy there or a plan."
Brady continued. "The only plan is, oh he's a good player, we'll buy him. It doesn't really fit into the way he wants to do things."
John Giles chimed in. "Van de Beek and Sancho, who bought them? That's the problem," he said. "You take Klopp, you take Guardiola, now you've got Tuchel."
"You can feel and sense they're in charge of the situation of who comes and goes, which is ninety percent of the job," he said.
"In Solskjaer's case, I don't think he's in charge of that, I don't think he's ever been in charge of that."
Ole is a genius. Knew United wanted Conte and Spurs on the brink of sacking Nuno. Conte is available for both clubs.
Ole conjures one of his nine lives to beat Nuno, gets Nuno sacked, pushes Conte to Spurs and keeps his job.— Saddick Adams (@SaddickAdams) November 1, 2021
The Conte Rumours
When discussing a potential successor, if United were to move on from Ole, Antonio Conte seems to be a popular choice amongst the fans.
"He said he would be interested in the Manchester United job," Dunphy said. "But he said he would have to be in charge of buying and selling. That would appear to rule him out."
Liam Brady gave his two cents on the Conte rumours:
Conte has authority, he has pedigree. He fell out at Chelsea over the same situation. I think Abramovich wanted to buy the players or buy some of the players. Conte has the track record to be able to say to a club, look, I'll come, I'd love to manage the club but I want to be in charge of everything to do with footballing matters. I don't know whether the people at United want to do that because it's a business, Eamon isn't it.
John Giles had his say on the Glazers unlikeliness to appoint the Italian:
90% of the job is getting in the players that you want and getting rid of the players that you don't want. Every manager has a vision of what the team they want to be and the players that they want in the club to fit in. If you don't get that, your vision is not fulfilled in any way whatsoever. If the business people which I believe at Man United are buying the players. When they brought Solskjaer in, it was exactly who they wanted. They don't want a Conte, because it goes against exactly what they want to do.
Dunphy then made a final point on the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo. "Ronaldo cost 2o million, they got him for more or less nothing."
"They sold 200 million worth of shirts two weeks after he joined the club. That's a figure they understand. The football side of it is different."
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