What the papers say
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3.26pm BST
Wolverhampton Wanderers have enjoyed playing Manchester United this season. Back in September, they came away from Old Trafford with a deserved 1-1 draw, Fred and Joao Moutinho exchanging goals, Adama Traore going close twice late on. Then a couple of weeks ago, Raul Jimenez and Diogo Jota fired Wolves into the semi-finals of the FA Cup at Molineux at United’s expense. Can they do it again, and beat the Reds twice in the same season for the first time since 1980?
They don’t come into this match in particularly good nick. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side sit seventh in the Premier League table, the Best of the Rest, but they’ve only won once in the league in the last two months, and that against Cardiff City. They’re coming off the back of a lame 2-0 defeat at Burnley. And they’ll surely have one eye on this weekend’s FA Cup semi-final with Watford. It’s only natural if they don’t approach this game with 100 percent vigour.
Continue reading...Solskjær brushes aside Zinedine Zidane’s admiration for Paul Pogba
• ‘Paul’s happy here, he’s going be a big part here’
Ole Gunnar Solskjær has said he does not like to discuss other sides’ players as Zinedine Zidane did about Paul Pogba, though the Manchester United manager is confident that the Frenchman is content at the club.
At the weekend Zidane said he liked Pogba “a lot”, after the midfielder had said during the international break that it would be a dream to play for Real Madrid and their manager.
Related: Anthony Martial goal proves key as Manchester United hold off Watford
Continue reading...Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action
Sarri is nearing the end at Chelsea, Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander Arnold shone for Liverpool while Leicester and Rodgers look like the perfect fit
With Ole Gunnar Solskjær suggesting afterwards that Paul Pogba may operate deeper at times and Luke Shaw playing like a left‑back-cum-libero against Watford, this first win as the permanent manager suggests his brave new world will continue to feature a brightness of approach. Solskjær wishes to harness Pogba’s all-round ability to give more control of the ball as United are primarily a counter-attack unit. This was how Shaw opened up Javi Gracia’s impressive team with a majestic Matthias Sammer-like pass that put Marcus Rashford in to open the scoring. Before then United were poor as they were after the break until Anthony Martial’s strike proved the winner despite Abdoulaye Doucouré’s late finish. The goals from Rashford and Martial took them to 10 in the league to join Romelu Lukaku and Pogba in double digits: this has not occurred since the 1995‑96 season when Paul Scholes, Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs and Andrew Cole did the same. Jamie Jackson
Related: Sarri-ball on last legs after Chelsea’s nadir in Cardiff prompts rebellion | Dominic Fifield
Related: Andy Robertson calms the nerves to leave Anfield jamming with joy | Barney Ronay
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Related: The Dozen: the weekend’s best Premier League photos
Related: Paul Gascoigne’s poignant cameo sets the stage for Spurs’ next chapter | David Hytner
Continue reading...The Dozen: the weekend’s best Premier League photos
Featuring Sergio Agüero and Neil Warnock, it’s your weekend roundup of the best photography from England’s top flight
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Solskjær: 'Everyone knows that we can perform better' – video
Ole Gunnar Solskjær's first game as the permanent Manchester United manager got off to a less than convincing start as they secured a 2-1 victory over Watford. 'The first 20 minutes we started so slow and sloppy,' said Solskjær, adding that Javi Gracia's side 'deserved to take the lead'. United opened the scoring after a speedy counter attack lead by Luke Shaw before Marcus Rashford netted, then Anthony Martial poked home a second from close range
Continue reading...Anthony Martial goal proves key as Manchester United hold off Watford
The sun shone, a gigantic banner sporting bearing Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s face swirled in the Stretford End, and Manchester United claimed victory.
This was the perfect way to herald the Norwegian being made full-time manager and to respond to the last two defeats. It was hardly pretty: United were stuck in second gear, the goals apart, but as winning while underperforming is a yardstick of a team it was a satisfactory afternoon, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial the home scorers, with Abdoulaye Doucouré producing Watford’s late response.
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Continue reading...Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba ‘vital’ to United, says Ole Gunnar Solskjær
• Players said to be targets of Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid
• ‘They are vital for our future,’ Manchester United manager says
Ole Gunnar Solskjær is determined to keep Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford at Manchester United and says they are both vital to the club.
Related: Ole Gunnar Solskjær was always ambitious - he is an inspiration to us in Norway | Dan Eggen
Related: Those gunning to be caretaker PM should take notes from Solskjær | Stefan Stern
Continue reading...Ole Gunnar Solskjær was always ambitious - he is an inspiration to us in Norway | Dan Eggen
I was a Norway teammate of Ole Gunnar Solskjær but now I am head of coaching education for the Norwegian football federation and it was absolutely marvellous and brilliant – as well as really surprising – that he got the offer to be Manchester United temporary manager last December.
Related: Ole Gunnar Solskjær needs to be more than high priest of Fergianity | Jonathan Wilson
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Related: I feel so privileged to be Manchester United manager, says Solskjær
Continue reading...Manchester United v Watford: match preview
Saturday at 3pm – what better time for Ole Gunnar Solskjær to take on his first game as Manchester United’s permanent manager and it is a sobering thought that had things been different at the end of the Alex Ferguson era, David Moyes would still have four months left on his six-year deal. Solskjær is the third appointment since Moyes was sacked and he will immediately have to correct a dip in form which has seen United lose their past two games. Watford would seem to be timely visitors, preparing as they are for an FA Cup semi-final with Wolves on Sunday week. “We have to know some players have been with their national teams and with three games in a row in a short time, we need to make decisions in selection,” said Javi Gracia, the Watford manager. Mark Tallentire
Saturday 3pm
Continue reading...Those gunning to be caretaker PM should take notes from Solskjær | Stefan Stern
Football and politics have a rich history of caretaker managers. The tricky bit is keeping the magic alive if they become ‘permanent’
Meet the new boss, not quite the same as the old boss. Ole Gunnar Solskjær, the 46-year-old caretaker manager of Manchester United football club, has seen his temporary appointment become a permanent one.
Having arrived in December after the departure of Jose Mourinho, the Norwegian former Man Utd striker was only supposed to be in charge until the end of the season.
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Related: José Mourinho thought he could buy success – now he’s paid the price | Stefan Stern
Continue reading...Ole Gunnar Solskjær needs to be more than high priest of Fergianity | Jonathan Wilson
Backwards, then, to a glorious future. Where change has failed, let there be continuity. After six years of churn and unconvincing change, Manchester United in appointing Ole Gunnar Solskjær on a permanent basis have turned not merely to an icon of their past but to a manager who seems determined to be a conduit for that past. Let there be progress through history. Let it always be 1999.
It is a popular move and, on the face of it, a good one. Solskjær has transformed this season. Yet Ed Woodward’s track record is such that every time he takes a decision the instinct is to flinch and assume it must in some way be flawed. And there are questions. Solskjær is inexperienced. He has never undertaken a rebuilding project like this before. The charm of his Scandi‑manc vowels and sheer excitement at being in the job may not last for ever.
Related: I feel so privileged to be Manchester United manager, says Solskjær
There have been notable tactical successes, most obviously at Arsenal and PSG
Related: Manchester United’s 1999 Champions League winners: where are they now?
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Continue reading...Virgil van Dijk forced to move home after Solskjær signs United deal
• Solskjær’s appointment hailed by former United greats
Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s appointment as the permanent manager of Manchester United will have the knock-on effect of leaving the Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk without a place to live.
After signing a three-year contract to become the permanent successor to José Mourinho, Solskjær revealed he and his family plan to live in the house he bought in Cheshire 12 years ago.
Related: Tie down De Gea, deal with Sánchez: Solskjær’s key Old Trafford tasks
Related: I feel so privileged to be Manchester United manager, says Solskjær
Continue reading...How Ole Gunnar Solskjær earned the Manchester United job – video
Ole Gunnar Solskjær has been confirmed as the permanent manager of Manchester United, agreeing a three-year contract with the club. He's been responsible for a remarkable revival after United's worst start to a league campaign in 28 years. Here's how he won the job full-time
Continue reading...Manchester United’s 1999 Champions League winners: where are they now?
United’s match-winner against Bayern is now their permanent manager, but what of Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s teammates? We look at what they have done in the 20 years since that treble
The Dane left United after the 1998-99 treble season and played for Sporting Lisbon, Aston Villa and Manchester City before retiring in 2003. Has since worked as a television pundit for TV3 in Denmark and the BBC but was criticised in his home country when he agreed to host a show on Russia Today in 2018. Often seen watching his son, Kasper, play for either Denmark or Leicester City.
Related: Solskjær ‘beyond excited’ at three-year deal as Manchester United manager
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Related: Tie down De Gea, deal with Sánchez: Solskjær’s key Old Trafford tasks
Continue reading...Tie down De Gea, deal with Sánchez: Solskjær’s key Old Trafford tasks
Important this, because any projected summer signings will think twice if Manchester United are competing in the Europa League next season. Most people imagined the club would wait until the end of the season before making an announcement on the next permanent manager, if only to wait and see whether Solskjær really could deliver the Champions League place that seemed to be beyond José Mourinho. The club have jumped the gun to an extent, perhaps because of the novelty of finding themselves with a universally popular candidate in situ, but the danger is Arsenal and Tottenham holding tight to third and fourth places and leaving Solskjær and his fairytale appointment with a sense of deflation after three months of euphoria.
Related: Solskjær ‘beyond excited’ at three-year deal as Manchester United manager
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Continue reading...As United and Madrid doors close on Pochettino, what now for him at Spurs?
The manager faces a tricky-looking summer of restructuring with money tight and he may have lost leverage with Daniel Levy
Those close to Mauricio Pochettino have described it as a ridiculously intense 10-day period, when he and his coaching staff were locked so deeply into talks about Tottenham’s immediate future that it was a struggle for them to come up for air.
It was the end of last season and Pochettino had given a pointer as to what was on his mind after the wild 5-4 victory over Leicester at Wembley, which secured a third consecutive top-three Premier League finish and Champions League qualification.
Related: Ole Gunnar Solskjær appointed as Manchester United’s permanent manager
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Continue reading...Premier League run-in: who will be each club’s most important player?
Unai Emery’s selections have been almost impossible to second guess but if there is one outfield player who is guaranteed to start – when fit – it is Koscielny. Arsenal have often looked shaky at the back away from home and the captain stands to be a galvanising figure in the run-in, particularly as five of the club’s eight games are on the road. David Hytner
Related: Ole Gunnar Solskjær appointed as Manchester United’s permanent manager
Continue reading...Football transfer rumours: Aaron Wan-Bissaka to Man United?
With Ole Gunnar Solskjær finally officially announced as Manchester United’s new manager, the club will presumably set about trying to acquire the summer transfer targets he has identified. The Manchester Evening News say the club’s executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, is ready to abandon the Mourinho-esque policy of signing big-name players with plenty of experience and then leaving them on the bench or in the stands, in favour of a more long-term approach involving the recruitment of signing younger big-name players that have forged their reputations at other clubs.
In the market for a central defender, full-back, a central midfielder and a forward, the names of West Ham’s Declan Rice, Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-Odoi, Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho and Crystal Palace’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka are the latest to be – preposterously in at least two cases – bandied about in various media outlets.
Related: Ole Gunnar Solskjær appointed as Manchester United’s permanent manager
Continue reading...Ole Gunnar Solskjær appointed as Manchester United’s permanent manager
• Norwegian signs three-year contract after reviving United
Ole Gunnar Solskjær has been confirmed as the permanent manager of Manchester United on a three-year contract after a successful period in interim charge.
Solskjær was due to continue in a caretaker capacity until the end of the season but has revived the team so impressively since taking over from José Mourinho in December that his appointment on a longer-term basis has been announced by the club.
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Continue reading...Premier League fans assess the run-in. Part 2: Leicester to Wolves
Fans rate the season so far, and predict what lies ahead
• Part 1: Arsenal to Huddersfield
The mood has really lifted around here in the few weeks since Brendan Rodgers arrived. After months of grim, sluggish football, the Foxes are starting to rediscover their swagger again. It might all be too little too late for this season but the longer-term future is looking bright again.
The Spurs ballboy wasting time at the end. pic.twitter.com/V38FDYCLwC
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Continue reading...