Ex-Man Utd midfielder Nemanja Matic thinks former Red Devils manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer “deserved more time” at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils sacked Solskjaer towards the end of November 2021 with the Man Utd hierarchy bringing in interim manager Ralf Rangnick until the end of the season.
Solskjaer only signed a new three-year contract a few months before but five defeats in seven Premier League matches saw the pressure build on the Norwegian.
An embarrassing 4-1 loss to Watford was the final straw but, despite some encouraging early results, Man Utd hardly fared any better under Rangnick.
Man Utd finished second and third in the Premier League during Solskjaer’s time at Old Trafford, while they went on a run to the Europa League final in May 2021.
Matic had four managers while at Man Utd with Jose Mourinho, Solskjaer, Michael Carrick, and Rangnick all taking charge while the Serbian was at the Premier League club.
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And Matic reckons former Norway international Solskjaer “deserved more time” at Man Utd after he did “amazingly” at Old Trafford.
Matic told FourFourTwo: “We finished second and third under him. There was an atmosphere in the team that we weren’t happy finishing second, but when you see the results now, we did amazingly.
“I think Ole deserved more time – and when I say Ole, I also want to mention his staff, like Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna. They were going the right way to bring United back.
“Of course, they made the decision to sack Ole based on his final couple of results, but he was an amazing person with the right profile for the club. He and his assistants understood football – training was perfect and had every little detail ready for us.
“I felt sorry because Ole was a great guy and we were on the way to doing something big. I wasn’t his first choice in the midfield and never liked a coach when I didn’t play – I’d fight with them.
“But Ole was the first coach I didn’t fight with. He brought the players who weren’t in the starting XI together. He knew the club and the fans loved him.”
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Solskjaer revealed last year that Man Utd failed to act on his recommendation to sign Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham, and Declan Rice in a three-man shortlist.
Speaking to the Stick To Football podcast, Solskjaer said: “Erling was with me at Molde for two seasons, more or less. The summer before I came, I rang the club and said: ‘You have to sign this boy, he is going to be absolutely top class.’ That was in June or July and they said they didn’t have enough reports.
“By the time I came in as caretaker, we [Molde] had sold him to Salzburg. I tell the club straight away: ‘Buy him.’ He had a release clause. No-one else then would have paid that money. It was 20m euros and it would have been a bargain. It was the club’s decision to not go for him then.
“We didn’t go for him until he started scoring for Salzburg but then Dortmund, Juventus, everyone was there.”
On Bellingham, Solskjaer added: “We had Jude in the building. We sold the club to him as best we could but he wanted X amount of minutes. He is the most mature 17-year-old I ever met in my life.”